Jeff Crowther is a member of the volunteer fire department of Upper Nyack, NY, Empire Hook and Ladder Company #1. Jeff’s son, Welles, spends countless hours as he grows up helping at the station. At 16, Welles completes training and becomes a full member, answering alarms with his father during his high school years. A number of Empire alumni enter service with FDNY.

The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) becomes a touchstone for Welles as he begins his financial career in Manhattan. He admits to his father that he wants more than anything to be a fireman with FDNY, and he plans out the steps he’ll need to take to be accepted into the department. Welles enjoys a party on the department’s Marine One fireboat, hosted by Empire Hook and Ladder alumnus Harry Wanamaker, but Welles’s first and only serious contact with FDNY is when he helps department firefighters rescue people from the World Trade Center South Tower on 9/11. Welles’s body is found alongside several FDNY firemen at the lobby level of the ruined building.