Joseph P. Spor Jr. followed in his father's footsteps from the day he was born, which happened to be his father's birthday.
Like his father, he became a firefighter in the Bronx. Like his father, he also worked as a contractor, skilled enough to raise the roof on his Cape Cod house in Somers, N.Y. And in August, Firefighter Spor, 35, was assigned to the same company, Rescue 3 in the Bronx, where his father had worked. "He was ecstatic," said his wife, Colleen. "He was practicing every night on ropes to get all the different knots he'd be tested on."
Before joining the Fire Department in 1994, Firefighter Spor had an office job in Manhattan. But as the youngest of six children, and the only boy, the pull of his father's boots was irresistible. "He was never all that cut out for a suit and tie," said Michael Griffin, a close friend.
When he wasn't at the firehouse, Firefighter Spor usually strapped on his tool belt. His neighbor Michael Hurson was building a deck in his backyard when they first met. "He came nosing down the driveway and said, `Show me what you're doing,' " Mr. Hurson said. "Then he brought over his own lunch bucket and helped me finish."
Firefighter Spor never got to complete the remodeling of his own house. His Fire Department colleagues took care of the siding. And his father finished the deck.
Profile shared from original published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on January 6, 2002.