July 2007

Gritty Historical Novel Leads Readers Into a True South Bronx Tale Filled with Arson, Slumlords & NY’s Bravest

Decorated Retired South Bronx Fire Fighter Chronicles How Heroes Helped Save a NYC Community While Losing Their Lives in the Process

In his gripping new novel, John Finucane, a retired NYC Fire Department lieutenant, draws on his real life experiences while chronicling New York’s best kept secret in a dramatic tale of slumlords hiring arson-for-profit gangs to level the South Bronx in the turbulent late 1960s and 1970s. All of which happened while the city’s politicians turned a blind eye to the murderous results.

Since your historical novel, When the Bronx Burned is based on your own personal experiences working as a firefighter in the 1960s and 70s, why did you choose to create a novel rather than a non-fiction work?

To be honest, there are so many books with a police detective theme, but very rarely do you find one for firehouse enthusiasts and stories about emergency medical and first responders in fiction. So, I took my personal on-the-job stories and those of my fellow heroes to create When the Bronx Burned. In it, you learn about the brotherhood that develops between firefighters, as well as the relationships between the communities and the firehouses during the 60s as well as a love story and an investigative tale. In our story, a lone fire marshal and the firefighters have to do their own investigation on the arson for profit problem that is killing people. It’s a tragic, but very true tale.

Focuses on Bronx Arsons

Fireman Rekindles Blazes in Novel
By ARI PAUL, Reporter

Retired Fire Lieut. John Finucane received a lot of rejections when he tried to sell a manuscript, "When the Bronx Burned," based on his 30 years of experience working in the South Bronx. One literary agent said it was too offensive. Another suggested that publishers are typically uninterested in historical fiction when the era it covers is more recent than 50 years ago.

So Mr. Finucane's novel about a group of firefighters who set out to stop the infamous arsonists of the South Bronx in the 1970s is expected to be self-published this September. His characters, like the firefighters with whom he worked between 1967 and 1987, respond to five or six fires per day, and more during the night tour. When the department denies them more Fire Marshals in the area and the firefighters see that the police can't stop the arsonists, they band together to take the law into their own hands.

"It leads to a hell of an exciting story," he said.