It Started with a Helmet: A Retired Firefighter’s Return to New York City the Day Before 9/11

By Gerald Sanford and Chris Griffith

This is the amazing, true story of Gerald Sanford, a former New York City police officer and FDNY firefighter who retired and moved to Naples, Florida.

Retirement didn’t take, and he found himself working at North Naples Fire Control and Rescue District, which is how he stumbled on an early 1900s antique fire helmet. He instantly knew the helmet was from New York City.

By an amazing coincidence, Sanford presented the fire helmet back to the FDNY firehouse in the Bronx the day before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. With the city in ruins, Sanford volunteered to serve the FDNY in one of his former roles—press secretary.

In this memoir, he recalls volunteering after 9/11 as well as his earlier years working for the NYPD and FDNY, including his observations of political figures such as Mayor Ed Koch, Mayor David Dinkins, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and others.

Join Sanford as he shares an incredible story about Sept. 11 and how an antique leather helmet led two fire departments to forge a lasting bond.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jun 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9781663220356

Gerald Sanford

Gerald Sanford is a retired FDNY firefighter living in Naples, Florida. After serving twenty-nine years with the FDNY, he served seventeen years with North Collier Fire Control and Rescue District as its public information officer before retiring a second time. Chris Griffith is a real estate agent turned writer from Bonita Springs, Florida. Having written real estate columns for a variety of newspaper and magazine publications, she graduated to books so that she could share Gerald Sanford’s story.

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Copyright © 2021 Gerald Sanford and Chris Griffith.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6632-2034-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-2036-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-2035-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021912728

iUniverse rev. date: 06/22/2021

Dedicated to those who perished on 9/11 and their

surviving family members and loved ones.

We will never forget.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Cancer

Chapter 2 A Failed Retirement

Chapter 3 NYPD to FDNY

Chapter 4 The Press Office

Chapter 5 The Helmet

Chapter 6 September 10

Chapter 7 September 11

Chapter 8 Back on the Job

Chapter 9 Jay Jonas

Chapter 10 Time Marches On

Chapter 11 The People-Helping Business

Epilogue

Chapter One

CANCER

M r. Sanford, you have cancer.

The words echoed in my ears as the doctor pointed to the chest x-ray on the illuminator. It seemed like years, but only a few months earlier I’d had a routine chest x-ray at the annual fire department physical in Naples, Florida. Though I was the proverbial picture of health on the surface, an anomaly had been detected. They’d said it was probably a mistake, or possibly an error. But they called after the x-ray and asked me to come in for another look, just to be sure. The second visit confirmed my fears.

Three months passed from the discovery of cancer in July of 2007 until the treatment mapping in October. During that time, I told not a soul in my family or my inner circle. Our kids, all well into adulthood, were so worried about my wife, Maria, that I simply couldn’t bring myself to add more stress or worry to any of their lives. We had been married for sixteen years, and Maria was in the fight of her life against her own illness: breast cancer.

For months, I flawlessly orchestrated and executed countless secret doctor appointments, biopsies, and follow-up appointments at the Naples Community Hospital. Every covert appointment went undetected by friends, family, and most of my coworkers.

One idle Sunday morning, Maria and I were about to leave for our favorite breakfast spot, the Cove Inn on Naples Bay. She was sitting in the kitchen with a straw hat on the table in front of her. She was thin, frail even, and without hair from the effects of her numerous cancer treatments. But this secret had been gnawing at my gut for long enough, and I’d finally decided to tell everyone. I had reached breaking point. I had to have treatment, and there was no hiding what was about to happen even if I wanted to.

I walked over to Maria and knelt beside her chair. My face felt hot, and I know I flushed bright red. I took her hand and said, "I have something really terrible to tell you. I have lung cancer. They think