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.

'HELL OF AN EXCITING STORY': Advocates for a 9/11 Fallen Heroes Memorial founder John Finucane, center, will self-publish a novel in September based on his experiences fighting fires in the South Bronx during the 1960s and '70s.

A Kind of Memorial

Mr. Finucane started writing "When the Bronx Burned" in 1998 as a way to remember his co-workers who died in the line duty during the 1960s and '70s when the arson epidemic in the borough was at its worst.

"Two of my friends were killed," he said. "Subsequently, a number of guys died of lung cancer and heart diseases. They died young."

Mr. Finucane served on the executive board of the FDNY Emerald Society for 27 years. He is also the founder of Advocates for a 9/11 Fallen Heroes Memorial, which demands that the names of emergency responders who died in the line of duty on 9/11 should be kept together according to their department and unit on a memorial at the World Trade Center site.

One thing that irked Mr. Finucane when he and his company responded to multiple fires per day that they were convinced were arsons was that he felt the problem was underreported.

A Nation As Witness

During the 1977 World Series, an ABC-TV camera mounted on a helicopter recorded a fire raging not far from Yankee Stadium. ABC commentator Howard Cosell interrupted the play-by-play to declare, "Ladies and gentlemen, The Bronx is burning." A TV mini-series with a similar title debuted on ESPN this week.

The image, coupled with Mr. Cosell's comment, has long been considered an icon of a dystopian New York ravaged by economic downturn, violent crime and drug abuse.

"Another reason is to remind the public of what these firefighters went though in those days," Mr. Finucane said of his motivation to write the novel. "These guys took a hell of a beating."

While the novel depicts the drama of fighting fires during the 1960s and '70s, he denied that anyone from his company actually decided to hunt down arsonists on their own.

Mr. Finucane added that the book will be available through Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.