On the morning of September 11, 2001, Chief William Feehan was seventy-one years old. He was a deputy commissioner of the FDNY. And he spent the last moments of his life the way he had spent the majority of his life up to that point: trying to keep people safe.

Feehan’s story serves as the centerpiece of Brian McDonald’s latest book, Five Floors Up: The Heroic Family Story of Four Generations in the FDNY. The September 11 attack is the event around which the book is organized: it begins and ends there. Along the way, we learn about the history of the FDNY through the lens of the Feehan family. Chief Feehan may be the most famous Feehan to serve in the FDNY, but he wasn’t the first. He followed in his own father’s footsteps, just as his son, John, followed in his. Some people—some families—are drawn to this life.

In this book, McDonald sets out to understand why. And in the process, he lifts up stories that are too often overlooked—stories of hidden lives lived for others.

“For periods all too brief in our country,” McDonald writes, “selflessness and a reflexive desire to help others at any price have received the respect they deserve.”

To mark the twenty-fourth anniversary of September 11, I talked to McDonald about, among other topics:

* His journey into journalism

* The process of writing this book

* Chief Feehan and the Feehan family

* The emotional impact of 9/11

* 9/11 as a unifying national event

* The title Five Floors Up and how it epitomizes the firefighting spirit

Big thanks to Jay Ungar and Molly Mason for granting the licensing to use “Ashokan Farewell” in this episode and for generously making a donation to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.

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