By Thomas Tracy
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — Retired FDNY Battalion Chief Thomas Neary never considered himself the “bravest of the brave” even when everyone else did.
During his three decades with the department and the 30 years of his retirement, the humble father of three who died July 30 never spoke about how he was twice awarded with the FDNY’s highest honor for valor or the dozens of other medals he received for bravery.
Now that he’s gone, Neary’s family and friends are making sure the legendary smoke eater receives all the laurels he would never give himself.
“We have all of his awards — there are tons of them,” his widow, Carol Neary, told the Daily News. “They were all hung up at the wake so everyone could see them.”
Neary’s family found the medals and plaques for fighting fires in Harlem and the Bronx in a dust-covered bin in his home’s basement, she said.
“He never discussed his medals and never bragged about them — but that was Tom,” she said. “I think if I ever put them up he would have killed me.”
Neary, 82, died in St. Pete Beach, Fla., from a heart condition. Scores of family, friends and city firefighters, retired and active, flocked to the Leo F. Kearns Funeral Home on Woodhaven Blvd. in Rego Park, Queens, on Thursday to pay their respects and swap stories about a Queens native who to many was larger than life.
Among Neary’s awards are two Peter J. Ganci Jr. Medals. The medal — renamed in 2020 for Ganci, who died on 9/11 — is the Fire Department’s equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Neary was the first firefighter to win the medal twice.
Neary received his first Ganci medal in 1974 for rescuing a pregnant woman and her 4-year-old son from a massive fire inside an apartment on Home St. in Longwood, Bronx.
Neary and his lieutenant “moved swiftly through a wall of flames” to find mother and child cowering by a window blocked by a window guard, according to an FDNY account of the rescue.
The two tore off the window guard and Neary “shielded the lieutenant and the woman with his body” as they escaped onto a ladder truck outside.
“His clothes smoldering and his strength about spent, Neary leaped head first to the unsupported ladder wavering about three feet away,” the FDNY’s account of the rescue said.
Neary suffered third degree burns to his face, wrists and legs making the rescue.
Three years later — after he was promoted to lieutenant — Neary rescued a small unconscious boy from a fire in an apartment on W. 147th St. in Harlem.
Neary used a door that he and his colleagues ripped off its hinges as a heat shield as they searched for the child.
When he found the tot, Neary had to let go of the door and “dashed through the flames clutching the child in his arms,” the FDNY said.
“Upon reaching the public hall, he handed the boy to the forcible entry team and collapsed from the ordeal,” the department wrote at the time. “Veteran firefighters of these busy units stated that they had never witnessed an act of such magnitude.”
“I have no knowledge of a finer act,” a deputy chief at the scene said at the time.
Neary again suffered third-degree burns and was put on medical leave for nearly a month. He carried the scars of those two saves for the rest of his life but did not talk about them, his widow said.
“He never talked about how he was hurting,” she said.
After receiving his second Ganci award, The News nicknamed Neary the “bravest of the brave.”
“What a guy!” The News editorial board wrote. “He sheds glory not only on all of his fellow firefighters, but on the entire city.”
“He never talked about any of his rescues,” Carol Neary said. “He would walk into the house and we’d ask him about a particular fire and he would just say, ‘Oh, it was nothing.’ I only knew what happened from the other firemen.”
Neary joined the FDNY in 1963 and retired in 1994. He responded to alarms during what retired firefighters refer to as the “war years” in the 1970s, when fires ravaged parts of the Bronx, burning 97% of the buildings in seven U.S. Census tracts.
Through it all, Neary was credited for his uncanny ability to find fire victims through the smoke and flames, retired FDNY Deputy Chief Mike McPartland remembered.
“You would be out on a fire with him and he would say, ‘Go in that room, there’s a kid hiding in the closet,’” McPartland, 64, said. “We’d go in there and he’d be right.”
When they asked how he knew, he would chalk it up to common sense.
“There’s a fire and the kid’s scared. Where else would he go?” he replied, McPartland said.
To help make ends meet, the FDNY hero spent his evenings working at Suspenders, a firefighter bar on Second Ave. near E. 38th St. in Manhattan. But even there, Neary wouldn’t talk about his rescues with his fellow firefighters.
The 6-foot-1 smoke eater was the quintessential “quiet man,” said retired FDNY Lieutenant Mike Gurry, who worked with Neary at Ladder 28 in the Bronx.
“He didn’t need to say much. But if he had something to say, you would want to hear it,” said Gurry, 83. “He was very smart and knew his job well. He could always figure out what to do and had an alternative plan if things didn’t work out.”
“He never looked for recognition or anything like that,” Gurry added. “The Fire Department will never see the likes of him again.”
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