Firefighters at Marine 6 Present Special Gifts to Family of Fallen FF Kevin Kane

Members of Marine 6 with the Kane family. They are holding the sideboard, portrait of Kevin Kane and framed poem.

Probationary Firefighter Kevin Kane, from Ladder 110, was 30-years-old and had only 10 months on the job when he was killed at a fire in East New York on Sept. 12, 1991.

The following year, a new fireboat was dedicated and named to honor the hero – the ‘Kevin C. Kane.’

“It was a solid, very reliable boat,” Capt. Louis Guzzo, Marine 6, said. “It would always just keep going – it never stopped or failed us.”

The boat was 50-by-16 feet with a four foot draft. It reached speeds of 30 to 35 knots and could pump 5,000 gallons of water a minute – the equivalent of five fire engines.

During its 20-year tenure, the boat responded to many multiple-alarm fires throughout New York City and was integral in the response to US Airways flight 1549 (dubbed the Miracle on the Hudson) in January 2009.

Yet on Oct. 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit New York City and flooded the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

“The boat was flooded and irreversibly damaged,” Capt. Guzzo said.

The Kane family at Marine 6.

It was eventually decommissioned and sold, but the man for whom the boat was named was never forgotten. So in January, the members of Marine 6 invited the Kane family to quarters for a special presentation.

Members of the firehouse gave his family one of the boat’s sideboards, bearing the name of the hero (the other now hangs in the quarters of Marine 6). Firefighter Mark Barrett, Marine 6, also painted a portrait of Firefighter Kane, with his namesake fireboat operating in the background.

And they reminded the family that Firefighter Kane will never be forgotten.

“When you work on a boat, you always want to make sure you do the right thing at an emergency,” Capt. Guzzo said. “Not only because you’re a part of the FDNY, but also to honor whom boat is named after.”

The firefighter’s brother, Raymond Kane, also presented the members with a special poem honoring the event, which now hangs prominently at Marine 6.