Five decades after one of the Fire Department's worst pre-9/11 tragedies, a Queens business owner plans to dedicate a plaque to six heroes who died in a blaze at the site of his building.
Peter Keane, who has owned VIP Auto Body on 56th Road in Maspeth since 1990, heard of the deadly Oct. 26, 1962, blaze but didn't give it much thought until a few years ago.
That's when employees came across charred timbers in the building.
He went to work researching their history, and learned of the blaze at the Sefu Fat and Soap Co. - the business then located at the site.
Minutes after the fire was declared under control, the wall and roof collapsed.
Six of 17 firefighters trapped in the rubble were killed: Capt. William Russell, firefighters Francis Egan, Richard Gifford, James Ruane and George Zahn, and probationary firefighter Richard Andrews.
The tragedy got relatively little attention - the Cuban missile crisis took up headlines that would have gone to them.
Egan's widow, Joyce, said she hopes her son, Frank, now 52, will attend the plaque's dedication with her grandson Jared on Oct. 26.
She's grateful that Keane is honoring their memory.
"There are a lot of good people in this world," Egan said yesterday.
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