N.Y. firefighter calendar still on

Associated Press

NEW YORK — A calendar featuring bare-chested firefighters — including three who died Sept. 11 — will go on sale this summer with the endorsement of their families.

The benefit calendar was scrapped last fall amid concerns that it would be tasteless, but families of the fallen firefighters supported publication of the revised "Calendar of Heroes."

"With everything that happened in September, we decided it wasn’t going to be done. Then people got upset about it," said fire department spokeswoman Amanda Schmidt. "The families actually expressed that they wanted it to move forward."

The portraits were taken against backdrops of Central Park, Times Square and the Brooklyn Bridge, but the Sept. 11 attacks forced some modifications. The original cover shot, taken last August, had firefighter Danny Keane in front of the World Trade Center. That photo was replaced with a shot of Keane before the Empire State Building.

Keane, 25, said he’s pleased families endorsed the project.

"This was the last great memory of their sons," he said.

Three of the models — Robert Cordice, Thomas Foley and Angel Juarbe — were among the 343 New York Fire Department firefighters who died when the World Trade Center towers collapsed Sept. 11.

Cordice, 28, is shown astride the famous bronze bull sculpture in the financial district. He was a member of Squad 1, among the first units to respond after the first plane hit the world trade center.

His mother, Caroline Cordice, said she is proud to see her son in the calendar, although she noted that he otherwise "always wore a shirt." She said Robert was her only child and "my best friend."

The initial print run of 100,000 is to sell for $15 at newsstands and bookstores nationwide starting in July, with part of the proceeds going to the department’s Fire Safety Education Fund.