The Donnovans

A new book from Harry Ahearn, author of Ghetto Firefighter (just re-released in hardcover). This is the story of an FDNY family, the saga of a famed firehouse, and a reflection on the FDNY, from its very beginnings until the early 1990s. The book begins with Patrick Donnovan, a young man who escaped the brutal poverty of famine-plagued Ireland for the promise of peace and prosperity without hardship in America in the early 1800s. After serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, Patrick became one of the first paid members of the newly-organized New York City Fire Department. Patrick began his career on Engine 5, a unit located on East 14th Street in Manhattan, was promoted to lieutenant of Engine 18, and ended his career at Engine 58 in Harlem - what he thought would be a nice quiet company where he could finish his career in peace. Well, this wasn't the first time in his life that he was wrong! And the Donnovan family members who followed in his footsteps on the job proved his error every single working day and night.