By: Dave Cooper
It is hard to recall when you first heard the name Andy Fredericks, isn’t it? It is one of those names which has been synonymous with the fire service in New York City. It ranks among the likes of Dennis Smith, Vinnie Bollon, Ray Downey, John Norman, Paddy Brown, and Mychal Judge. They are names that belong to men whose legacy is woven not only into the fabric of New York, but into the American fire service in its entirety. Their legacies were here before an entire generation of firefighters came on the job and will likely long remain after the coming generations retire.
Like many of my generation, my introduction to Andy Fredericks was posthumously through his writing. The first article I remember reading was Andy’s account of the Father’s Day Fire that claimed the lives of three firemen in the Astoria section of Queens in 2001. A few short months after Andy’s emotional account of that tragic day, he himself would be among the 343 FDNY members who perished in the collapse of the Twin Towers. Since that time, the post-9/11 generation of firefighters across the country have come to know Andy through his technical articles and Fire Engineering “Bread and Butter” series videos.
In 2009, a different kind of training event debuted in the small southern city of Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. It began as a collaborative effort that spanned from the Potomac to the Hudson, aimed at furthering the technical knowledge that Andy championed while raising funds for the Fredericks family.
Andy Fredericks Training Days (AFTD) – now in its third year and officially hosted by IAFF Local 2141 – saw a near-capacity audience in the iconic George Washington Masonic Memorial this year. Firefighters from across the country came, in a manner of speaking, to pay their respects in the most appropriate way possible to a man that has left an immeasurable mark on the profession of fighting fires; they came to have a few laughs, share a few drinks with other students of the job and, most importantly, to further their knowledge in the basic tasks of structural firefighting.
Alexandria has a unique firefighting history: George Washington is said to have purchased the first fire pumper in this city that lays claim to being the home of the oldest continually operating fire department in the United States. The Alexandria Fire Department (AFD) also protects what is considered to be the most pristine eight blocks of existing Colonial America. Due to the almost immediate occupation by the Union Army during the Civil War, much of Alexandria was spared the destruction that many southern cities met during this period in U.S. history. The fate of the city’s original fire companies, tell a different story of occupation. The U.S. Army Quarter Master Department, established the U.S. Steam Fire House right on Princess Street, and promptly went about the systematic destruction of the equipment of almost every other fire company in the city.
Given the distinct history of the AFD, it seems fitting that an equally distinct firefighter like Andy Fredericks would begin his career as a paid firefighter there. He didn’t come to Alexandria green, however. By the time he came on the job in Alexandria, Andy had spent several years in upstate New York as a volunteer and an instructor. He had followed childhood friend Joel Kanasky to Alexandria while they both anxiously waited to be appointed to the FDNY. Andy’s call came first; Kanasky was not far behind.
Andy soon found a home in the Bronx at Engine 48 with the likes of then Captain John Salka and firefighter John Grasso. Later, Salka would be promoted to Battalion Chief and Grasso to Lieutenant. In the first year of AFTD, Lt. Grasso recalled Andy’s early days in the Bronx. Without revealing his several years of experience in the fire service, Andy tasked himself with knowing everything about the rig he was riding and the uses for every tool and appliance. When Grasso explained the purpose of the flow gauge Andy decided everyone needed to understand its use. Shortly thereafter, Andy delivered an article to Fire Engineering on the flow gauge. This would be one of many articles that Andy would write for various fire service publications and websites. These writings would offer a breadth of technical knowledge delivered in an easily understandable fashion. There is no doubt that Andy’s time on Engine 48 helped shape his career and, consequently, have a tremendous impact on his department. During his time in the Bronx, Andy, Grasso, Salka, and the men of Engine 48, carried on in the tradition of the tough Bronx engine company. With that brawn brought brain, and the experience gained would subsequently go on to help revise the FDNY’s engine company operations.
In 1998, the FDNY established seven squad companies in a move to respond more efficiently to hazardous materials incidents. Among those new companies was Squad 18, housed in Manhattan’s West Village, where Andy found a new home. During this period, Andy would write what is probably the definitive technical article on nozzle selection entitled Little Drops of Water: 50 Years Later for Fire Engineering. In this two-part article, he challenged the conventional wisdom that proponents of the fog nozzle had championed for decades. He made sound arguments based on history, science, and his vast personal experience. He dug into the old technical manuals, text books, and industry press, and rooted out the misapplication of a tactic he regarded as one that “confused a generation of firefighters.” As Kanasky would say of him at this year’s AFTD, “Andy was meticulous. This was a guy that cleaned the baseboards in his house with a Q-tip!” It was this meticulous approach that landed him among a handful of influential voices that began to give growing credence to the use of the smooth bore nozzle. These guys were tired of getting boiled like lobsters during interior attacks, and Andy’s work gave them the science and the practical application to avoid it.
It was also during this period that Andy was beginning to become a known personality in the fire service. He was writing articles, appearing in instructional videos, and speaking at FDIC. Given all that, and the demands of his full time job and family life, there is one consistent theme that prevails when guys who knew him or had personal interactions with him speak about Andy Fredericks: That theme is that he had time for everyone, no matter how big or small the department, or how simple or complex the question directed at him. He spent time talking with guys, offering them technical advice, and perhaps most importantly, listening.
After Andy’s death on 9/11, it would be Kanasky, now assigned to FDNY’s Rescue 1, and Dan McMaster, who also made the trip north from the AFD to the FDNY, that would manage the Andrew Fredericks Family Fund.
McMaster, who returned to Alexandria in 2001 and is currently a Captain with the AFD, explains that:
“At the time of Andy’s death, the brothers in Alexandria collected a nice amount to benefit the families of those who were lost. A significant piece of that money was given to Joel Kanasky and me to create a fund specifically for Andy’s family. At the time, we were too overwhelmed to think things through completely, so the money sat in a college fund for Andy’s kids, Andrew and Hayley, for a few years. The fund was always something that both of us were aware of, but didn’t discuss or plan for very often.”
Reluctant to embark on yet another golf tournament, 10k run, or t-shirt sale to raise funds, it seemed a training event would be the most appropriate way to provide material support for Andy’s family, as well as preserve the legacy of a man who gave so much, not only to individual firemen, but to the fire service as a whole.
In 2009, the first AFTD in many ways took on the character of a wake. All of the instructors that year had been personal friends of Andy’s, and for many, it was an emotionally raw moment when Captain McMaster took the podium to offer opening remarks. “It was hard,” says McMaster, “You’re in front of 300 people and you’re talking about a guy who is not around anymore.”
As a result, in the following year there was a conscious decision on the part of the organizers to lighten the mood and, perhaps, make it a bit easier on those who knew Andy personally. Very few words were spoken about the namesake of the event. Captain McMaster explained that, at the end of the 2010 event, many attendees, those with no personal knowledge of Andy, wanted to know who he was and why so many people were drawn to him.
While the technical instruction of AFTD has been second-to-none since its inception, the harder question remained of how to speak not of Andy the technically sound firefighter, but of Andy the man, husband, father, friend, and neighbor. The 2011 AFTD, however, offered a middle ground that warmly, yet soberly, remembered Andy through the recollections of his peers with stories from both on and off the job. Organizers and instructors alike seemed to hit their stride in honoring Andy’s contribution on the job and still remembering him in his personal life. The mood had shifted from somber to celebratory.
In its three years of existence, AFTD has never offered any fire service buzz words. No classes about USAR, vehicle extrication, hazmat, or swift water rescue. It’s all meat and potatoes work: forcible entry, ventilation, high rise fires, and, most importantly, engine company operations. The Training Days have always been about the blue collar work that is the backbone of the fire service and the ability to use your head for something other than a place to hang your leather helmet. It has been about remembering those who have come before us and honoring their memory by sharing what they have left behind. Most importantly, it has been about rank-and-file firemen coming together to fellowship, learn, and spend time talking about the greatest job on the planet. Andy Fredericks Training Days can be summed up by Joel Kanasky’s opening remarks as he warmly remembered the contributions of his childhood friend: “This job has always been about two guys, one line, one hallway, and a good push.”
Dan McMaster, Captain, Alexandria Fire Department on Andy Fredericks
You don’t realize when somebody’s your friend, when you see them all the time, how important he is or what a big deal he is to people in other parts of the country. I was standing outside the funeral home the day of Andy’s funeral there in Suffern, NY. The church where the funeral was advertised was down the street and around the corner. Somehow all these guys kept trickling in to the funeral home from all over the country and they would just stand there and talk about Andy. The funerals at the time were very lightly attended. Lots of great men had low turnouts for their service because there were so many funerals and so much work going in the job. There were several other funerals the day Andy was buried and yet his turnout was amazing. The brief funeral home service was supposed to be a small private event before the actual funeral mass down the street that very few people knew about– yet dozens of guys managed to find their way there. After weeks of heartbreakingly low turnouts for men who deserved better, it was amazing to see the turnout for Andy. It made a really tough day a little better.
The thing was that he was so unassuming that you would never would have imagined he would have had that kind of reach. When you talked to him it was just like talking to your neighbor. Every time you ran in to somebody that knew him it was the same thing, it was how much time he spent with them and how much time he spent talking about their issues and asking questions about their department. He knew more about most people’s departments than people in the departments; what kind of fire trucks they had, what kind of lines they stretched, things like that.
John Salka, Battalion Chief, FDNY, on Andy Fredericks
Andy was one of my men when I was on Engine 48 before he went to the Squad. He was always a great guy and always at the top of his game. Andy was sharp and he knew it. He read, he studied and he researched. He had his opinions and he really wasn’t interested in yours but he did it in a very professional way. Andy was very confident and knew what he was talking about when he finally wrote an article or brought something to the table for a discussion. You knew he had his ducks all in a row. His untimely death on 9/11 left a void in all of us. Andy Fredericks Training Days is one way of me thanking him and thanking his family for having known him and been a part of my job.
John Norman, Deputy Assistant Chief, Special Operations Command, FDNY (ret), on why it is important for him to teach at AFTD
It’s important for me to be here to remember Andy and his legacy. Andy and I never worked together in a firehouse but we certainly worked together at fires. He had a passion and a zeal for the job and doing things the right way all the time. He wanted everybody to understand the ‘whys;’ not just how we do things but why we do them. Once you can do that you’re a well skilled firefighter. If you are just doing things because somebody told you to do it then you’re not thinking. Andy was always a thinking man and that is probably my biggest impression of him. He was passionate about what he did and the reason was he wanted you to be better. Just knowing how good he was and the impact that he had on people I’ve been affiliated with is one reason why I owe him a debt of gratitude. Being here is one way of paying it off.
The other reason it is so important to be here is to all the people in the audience. Somebody else taught me everything I know today and I’m just here passing it along to the next generation. That is what all of us should do. Some guys take that seriously and others just go about their way. I’m just thankful somebody else saw enough in me to take an interest to make me better. If everybody goes through life doing that we’ll all be a lot better off.
