Firefighting Parents Serve as Career Role Models for Their Children

​A child's chance to follow in their parent's footsteps regarding careers is very slim—only seven percent. Within this small percentage, a few heartwarming stories illustrate how a parent's love of firefighting influenced their children to join the force. In the case of New York firefighters, children became firefighters, following their parents' career paths.

Firefighting is a stressful job, as these first responders are often first at the scene of emergencies. While the job can be stressful for the firefighter and their families, many report the occupation as rewarding. A 2019 Bloomberg's Work Wise report found that America's firefighters experienced the highest job satisfaction, even though the median income at the time was $50,000. The intrinsic rewards of being a firefighter might be why children of firefighters choose this profession, regardless of the dangers.

The camaraderie and the family-like atmosphere draw children of firefighters to this profession. In the case of 65 New York City firefighters, some chose the career to honor their parents on September 11, 2021. On the 20th anniversary of September 11, these firefighters convened to memorialize their parents, take pictures, and share stories of how they became firefighters. Anthony Ragaglia, for instance, remembered his father. After graduating from college, Ragaglia joined the fire department, understanding the occupation's dangers. He is now a firefighter in Brooklyn.

Staten Island firefighter John Bergin is another firefighter who went into the profession after losing his father on September 11. Before the tragedy, Bergin spent time as a child in the firehouse and rode in the truck with the lights flashing and sirens blaring. He even ate supper with the other firefighters. The firefighter stated that some of his most incredible memories of his father would work with him. He also watched his father engage in rescues, like diving into water and ablaze buildings. His father's love for the job influenced him to become a firefighter. Today, he wears his father's badge number at Ladder 157 in Flatbush.

For Emmet Meehan, the Fire Department of New York provided structure for him. His father passed away in 2018, succumbing to a cancer that he contracted as a result of rescuing others on September 11. He describes his own life as being directionless and experiencing depression while watching his father pass away. In response, he took the fire department test and passed. Today, he carries a picture of his father while he works as a firefighter in Washington Heights.

Some of the children from the September 11 tragedy are legacies, as is the case of Robert J Weiber's sons Erik and Chris Weiber. The eldest Weiber was a firefighter in Astoria, Queens. Like Meehan's father, he succumbed to cancer related to his rescues on September 11. Chris had planned to become a firefighter, and his brother became an accountant before joining firefighting. Both brothers state that their father found firefighting fulfilling. He loved his job.

However, not all the stories have tragedy. In the case of Robert Thomas, his three sons, Stephen, Jason, and Nathan, joined the Fire Department of New York because of the friendship they saw their father experience as a young firefighter. Like the young men in the previous examples, their father often took his young sons to work with him, where they witnessed a camaraderie similar to a second family.

Before joining the department, Jason and Stephen were pursuing other careers, the former as a stockbroker and the latter in business. Today, they all work for the Fire Department of New York. Incidentally, the Thomas family of firefighters is this profession's largest legacy of color in the country.