Twice now -- 30 years apart -- FDNY Firefighter Vinny Brennan helped apprehend a crime victim.
Last week, FDNY Firefighter Vinny Brennan III tackled a man who snatched a cell phone from a woman not far from where his father saved the life of a police officer who was being assaulted by a drug dealer in 1980.
"He called me, and said I was probably going to hear about something he did," Vinny Brennan Jr. said in a telephone interview Thursday. "I was proud, very proud when he told me what I was going to hear."
Coming to the aid of someone in distress isn't unusual for either. Both were U.S. Marines and the younger Brennan is currently assigned to Engine 28/Ladder 11, the same firehouse where his father was.
"I always looked up to (the members), they were like superheroes to me," Brennan III said in a statement. "This is the family business. We just like to help people."
His father, a retired FDNY firefighter, got involved with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation after losing his brother, Peter, an FDNY firefighter, on Sept. 11.
He was in Maryland this past weekend assisting the families of fallen heroes during the annual National Fallen Firefighters' Memorial Service.
Watch Brennan's Interview With Firehouse.com (Second Part)
He recalled looking out a window 30 years ago to see a police officer being hit in the head with a brick. "We had just come back from a softball game. I grabbed a bat on the way out."
Brennan said the assailant was going after the officer's gun when he took the swing at him. I kicked the gun back to the officer."
He said he didn't hesitate as he knew the police were outnumbered.
After chasing another down the block, Brennan added with a laugh. "Then, I went back to the firehouse and got yelled at."
Brennan, 63, said he is extremely proud of his son for getting involved. "He's incredible. It didn't surprise me that he chased and tacked the guy."
It was approximately 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 1 when his son stepped off a rig at after returning from a response to a stuck elevator.
He stood in the middle of East 2nd Street in Manhattan and stopped traffic so the apparatus could back in to quarters when he heard some commotion but could not make out what was being said over the sound of the engine, according to an FDNY press release.
Once the rig began to move, he could hear a woman yelling, "Help me!" and saw her chasing a man down the sidewalk across the street from the firehouse.
Although the suspect tried to dodge between cars, Brennan got his man, body-checking him into the side of a building.
"It was over after that," he said in a statement. "He didn't even put up a fight."
The other firefighters saw what happened and surrounded the man as they waited for police to arrive. It turned out that the man had stolen the woman's cell phone.
"Yeah, I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, right?," The elder Brennan laughed. "He's a good kid, a good Marine and good firefighter."
Susan Nicol | News Editor
Susan Nicol is the news editor for Firehouse.com. She is a life member and active with the Brunswick Volunteer Ambulance & Rescue Company, Oxford Fire Company and Brunswick Vol. Fire Co. Susie has been an EMT in Maryland since 1976. Susie is vice-president of the Frederick County Fire/Rescue Museum. She is on the executive committee of Frederick County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association. She also is part of the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems (MIEMSS) Region II EMS Council. Susie is a board member of the American Trauma Society, Maryland Division. Prior to joining the Firehouse team, she was a staff writer for The Frederick News-Post, covering fire, law enforcement, court and legislative issues.
