DAN KADISON
Courtesy of The New York Post

NEW YORK, New York -- Saying they need time to grieve and to resume a normal routine, many firefighters stationed in Manhattan's tourist areas are feeling the pinch of the countless well-wishers taking their photographs and asking them personal questions.

"Everything's getting to us. It's not just people stopping by. It's everything," said one firefighter in Engine Co. 23, the 54th Street firehouse that lost six men Sept. 11. "It's nothing against anyone. We appreciate everything, but . . ."

The Engine 23 firefighter said he's smiled for at least 150 to 200 pictures, and while he sometimes doesn't want to pose for out-of-town shutterbugs, he obliges.

"It's part of the public image of being a firefighter," he said.

The pictures, he said, aren't the worst part. It's the questions and "persistence" that normally follow.

"What happened down there is very intimate," he said. "You ever ask a cop, ‘Did you kill anyone?' You don't ask a fireman ‘Were you there that day?' "

Not all of New York's Bravest are fatigued by adoring fans, the firefighter cautioned.

Some firefighters like mingling with tourists, others don't, he explained. For some, it just depends on their mood.