When John Collins was 4 years old, his father took him to a Bronx firehouse. That is when he decided what he wanted to do. It took a while, with entrance exams delayed because of a legal dispute, so he joined the Police Department first before becoming a fireman in 1990.
The oldest of five children, Mr. Collins, 42, organized family events, like two weeks each year on Long Beach Island in New Jersey, or a benefit concert on the aircraft carrier Intrepid in Manhattan, followed by a night on the town with his sisters and their husbands. He lived in the Bronx, lifted weights and bought groceries for neighbors who were down on their luck.
He never talked much about his work, his sister Eileen Byrne recalled, because he did not want to worry his parents. "We teased him, said he was the only fireman who never went to a fire," she said.
That is not how they remember him at Ladder Company 25 on 77th Street. On Sept. 11, he was supposed to go to another firehouse to fill in. It was called out before he could get there. When Ladder 25 was called, he jumped on the engine. "We had seven firemen on the rig instead of six," said another fireman, Matt O'Hanlon.
Profile shared from original published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on November 6, 2001.