The Leary Firefighters Foundation (LFF) provides funding and equipment to fire departments throughout the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. On December 3, 1999, six

firefighter A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

s in

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

were killed in the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse fire, a massive fire set by

squatter Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

s. Among the dead was the cousin of comedian

Denis Leary Denis Colin Leary (born August 18, 1957) is an American actor and comedian. A native of Massachusetts, Leary first came to prominence as a stand-up comedian, especially through appearances on MTV (including the comedic song "Asshole (song), Assh ...

, Firefighter Jerry Lucey, and his close childhood friend, Lt. Tommy Spencer. In response, the comedian founded the Leary Firefighters Foundation, which has since distributed over $2.5 million (

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

) to fire departments in the Worcester,

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

areas for equipment, training materials, and new vehicles and facilities, since its creation in 2000. As of 2006, the LFF has donated $425,000 to the

Boston Fire Department The Boston Fire Department provides fire protection and first responder emergency medical services to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It also responds to such incidents as motor vehicle accidents, hazardous material spills, utility mishaps, ...

, including a

fireboat A fireboat or fire-float is a specialized watercraft with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with firefighting equipmen ...

. As the foundation's president, Leary has been active in all of the fundraising, and usually presents large checks and donated equipment personally. The close relationship he has developed with the FDNY, as well as individual firefighters across the New York/

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

area, has resulted in Leary's most recent television show, '' Rescue Me'', a drama-comedy on FX about firefighters. In the

pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

of the show, he is seen wearing a Leary Firefighter Foundation 9-11 memorial T-shirt. A separate fund run by Leary's foundation, the

Fund for New York's Bravest Fund may refer to: * Funding is the act of providing resources, usually in form of money, or other values such as effort or time, for a project, a person, a business, or any other private or public institution ** The process of soliciting and gathe ...

, has distributed over $2 million (USD) to the families of the 343 firemen killed in the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

, as well as provided funding for necessities such as a new mobile command center, first responder training, and a high-rise simulator for the

New York City Fire Department The New York City Fire Department, officially the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), is an American department of the government of New York City that provides fire protection services, technical rescue/special operations services, ...

's training campus. After Leary learned that the

New Orleans Fire Department The New Orleans Fire Department provides fire protection and first responder emergency medical services to the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. The department serves 378,715 people living in a area, including of water. History The NOFD got its s ...

members rescued 18,000 people from Katrina waters using NOFD members' personal boats, the Leary Foundation committed money to help purchase rescue boats for the NOFD. Of the 33 firehouses in New Orleans before the hurricane, at least 20 were so damaged by the disaster that they were unusable—yet firefighters stayed on the job—even when they had to sleep in their rigs, because their own homes were also damaged. The Leary Foundation is committing more money and resources to further address some of the myriad needs of the NOFD and the people they serve.

References

External links

*{{Cite web, url=http://www.learyfirefighters.org/, title=The Leary Firefighters Foundation, id=Homepage Non-profit organizations based in New York City Organizations established in 2000