Hero of the Month: FDNY Lt. John Eccleston travels
across U.S. to lend his expertise in a crisis
Monday, October 27th 2008, 1:39 AM
Fire Lt. John Eccleston was in Mississippi for a week last month, after Hurricane Gustav hit, as a volunteer with the American Red Cross Disaster Assistance Response Team.
The DART team spent the time unloading trucks of supplies to stock warehouses in flooded areas.
"We usually load up a truck with food, water and supplies for repairs and go neighborhood to neighborhood and distribute them," Eccleston said.
Gustav didn't wreak the havoc that was predicted, so his team was sent home.
"Thank God, Hurricane Gustav wasn't nearly as bad," Eccleston said. "But I'm glad to be in a position to help."
For 10 years, Eccleston, 50, has put himself in disaster spots all across the nation and in Puerto Rico, helping people re-cover from hurricanes, tornados and floods.
That's aside from a 25-year career with the Fire Department.
"He is a model of volunteerism," FDNY Chief Salvatore Cassano said.
For his tireless efforts and putting himself in harm's way to help restore ruined lives, Eccleston is the Daily News Hero of the Month.
The life-long Staten Islander spent half his career in Manhattan, at such
companies as Engine 16 and Ladder 5. In 1996, he was promoted to lieutenant and was assigned to Ladder 79 in West Brighton, S.I.
"I was always had been interested in the DART team, so after my promotion, I felt I had the time to do it, and I joined," Eccleston said.
The team has been helping people since 1989.
His first deployment was to Puerto Rico in 1998, in the aftermath of Hurricane Georges.
"There was a tremendous amount of damage," Eccleston said. "We went neighborhood to neighborhood, trying to help people restore their houses."
But it was nothing compared with what he saw in 2005 on the Gulf Coast.
"Katrina was the worst," he said. "Just total devastation. Gulfport [Mississippi] was almost wiped off the map."
He spent the standard DART three-week deployment there.
"It's a long time to be away from your family and work," he said.
Between disaster relief efforts, he tries to volunteer whenever he can. He works with Project Hospitality, a church group on Staten Island.
"We go out and count the homeless," he said.
He's also a big fan of blood donations, having given 10 gallons of blood.
Eccleston also is an instructor for the Community Emergency Response Team, a multiagency group that prepares civilians for emergencies or disasters in their neighborhoods.
"CERT volunteers worked at the crane collapse in March, handing out water and directing traffic," Eccleston said.
Back in 1990, he saved a man who
had jumped into the East River and earned a Life Saving Benevolent Association of New York award.
"It makes you want to do more and more," Eccleston said. "It feels good in your heart. You sleep well. It just feels good."
He was deployed to Oklahoma for a category 5 tornado, and to North Carolina after flooding from a hurricane left many central North Carolina towns under water. He was in Louisiana after Tropical Storm Alison raged.
On Sept. 3, Eccleston went to Hattiesburg, Miss., and returned on Sept. 10, attending 9/11 ceremonies on Staten Island the next day.
"It seems every September, I'm going somewhere," he said.
Maybe it's a poignant coincidence. Seven years ago, he came across
the bay to the burning World Trade Center with hundreds of firefighters on the ferry.
"The sorrow of the firemen on that boat was unbelievable; guys were wailing, getting sick," he recalled, his voice cracking slightly.
None of his disaster work prepared him for the gruesome scene there.
"For the next six months, we were getting all types of help from across the country and across the world," Eccleston said.
"When I go out with DART, the people I'm helping have already helped us on 9/11, so there's never too much you can do for them.
"In September, it's nice I'm somewhere helping somebody at the same time they did something for us." poshaughnessy@nydailynews.