Denis Leary's Secret 25-Year Mission to Arm Firehouses

Denis Leary made his name playing furious, foul-mouthed characters, first as a stand-up comic and later as a hard-drinking firefighter on the FX drama Rescue Me. Off screen, he has spent more than a quarter century quietly doing something almost nobody associates with that persona: buying fire departments the equipment they cannot afford.

The Fire That Started It

On December 3, 1999, a fire broke out in the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse building in Massachusetts. Six firefighters went in searching for people believed to be trapped inside and never came out.

One of them was Firefighter Jeremiah "Jerry" Lucey, Leary's cousin. Another was Lieutenant Thomas Spencer, a friend from Leary's childhood in Worcester.

Leary did not turn the loss into a public grieving campaign. Within a year, he had set up the Leary Firefighters Foundation.

A Foundation Built on Gear, Not Speeches

The foundation's mission has stayed narrow and practical since 2000: fund the training facilities, vehicles and technology that city budgets routinely cut first.

Leary has said firefighters never go on strike, which he argues makes their departments an easy target for budget cuts.

The Boston Fire Department received a new fireboat through the foundation, part of a broader run of donations to the department.

From New Orleans to the FDNY

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Leary learned that New Orleans firefighters had used their own personal boats to pull thousands of people from the floodwaters. His foundation committed to replacing them, and in October 2006 delivered fourteen rescue boats to the New Orleans Fire Department.

The foundation later helped fund the rebuilding of New Orleans firehouses damaged by the storm.

In New York, the foundation helped fund the FDNY's first high-rise training simulator, along with a mobile command center, giving firefighters realistic training conditions most departments cannot afford to build on their own.

A Quarter Century and Counting

The foundation has since expanded into online training programs for firehouses nationwide and an annual public challenge at the FDNY's academy that lets civilians try the physical tests firefighters train on.

Worcester's fire department still marks the anniversary each year, honoring the legacy of the six firefighters lost.

Leary is still best known to most people for playing angry men on screen. In fire departments across the country, he is known for something else entirely.