Steve Buscemi worked as a full-time New York City firefighter before starting his acting career.
Buscemi’s role in the organisation
Hollywood actor Steve Buscemi had left the New York City Fire Department to pursue acting, but the September 11, 2001, attacks brought him back to the fire service. He explained that his father, a New York City sanitation worker, had encouraged him and his brothers to take a civil service test when they turned 18, according to TIME magazine. Buscemi took the Fire Department’s test and was assigned to Engine 55. In the days following 9/11, he said, he felt a strong sense of belonging among the people working at Ground Zero. He has also helped tell their stories through documentary projects, including ‘A Good Job: Stories of the FDNY’ and ‘Dust: The Lingering Legacy of 9/11. ’ The latter examines the continuing consequences of exposure to hazardous dust at the World Trade Center site. He also stressed that the effects of 9/11 did not end when the immediate rescue and recovery work finished.
As reported by Global Heroes, he has helped with fundraising and used his public profile to draw attention to firefighters’ experiences.
The actor said the dust at Ground Zero was initially treated as a nuisance, even as it clogged masks and made working difficult. He spent less than a week at the site, but said the scale of the tragedy caught up with him after he returned home. “So many people can feel isolated or that they’re the only ones that are going through this,” he said.
The next morning, he returned to Ground Zero, where he joined firefighters searching through the rubble of the World Trade Center. Years later, he continued supporting his former colleagues through Friends of Firefighters, a nonprofit that provides free, confidential mental health services to firefighters and their families. Buscemi joined the FDNY in the 1980s. He initially kept his acting ambitions quiet at the firehouse. Eventually, however, balancing firefighting shifts with film and theatre work became difficult, prompting him to take a leave of absence. The connection he had formed with the department remained important to him. Buscemi is not the founder of Friends of Firefighters. He supports its work and serves on its advisory council, alongside other public figures and people connected to the fire service. The website lists him as an actor, writer, director and former FDNY firefighter. In an interview with Global Heroes, Buscemi described the importance of making sure people do not feel alone in what they are going through. “It’s important to know that we’re all going through this together.
