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by MELISSA GRACE
It's an FDNY tradition. When one of New York's Bravest is killed or when the family they left behind is in trouble, you do what you can to help.
This time, Staten Island's Engine 167 and Ladder 87 firefighters raised $11,000 for the family of 32-year-old Army Staff Sgt. Paul Sweeney.
The firefighters got to know Sweeney - a Green Beret from Pennsylvania - when he presented them with an American flag his unit carried in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In August 2002, Sweeney arrived in New York with the Stars and Stripes he'd been given by retired FDNY communications electrician Thomas O'Neill, a friend of Sweeney's father-in-law, who lives down the block from the Annadale firehouse.
Sweeney, of Alpha Company, 3rd Special Forces Group, was killed in an ambush in Afghanistan in October 2003.
"He felt like what he was going overseas was for us, for 9/11, because so many firefighters and police officers got killed," said Firefighter Vincent D'Ovidio of Ladder 87. "Now we want to do what we can for his family."
The flag is folded and framed and hanging on a wall in the firehouse, surrounded by pictures of Sweeney and his unit in Afghanistan.
A check for the money raised so far will be presented to Sweeney's widow, Kristen, and their sons, Sean, 4, and Ryan, 2, tomorrow at 2 p.m. at the firehouse. The money will be put in a trust fund for the boys.
The response to the fund-raiser - flyers were sent to firehouses around the city and posted online at www.engine167ladder87.com, with the story of Sweeney and his flag - has been tremendous.
So far, 1,800 T-shirts bearing Sweeney's name as well as an FDNY helmet and a soldier's helmet have been sold since March, said Craig Chille of Ladder Company 87.
"I was getting so many checks from so many" firehouses, said the 25-year-old Chille, who, with D'Ovidio, 31, organized the effort.
Firefighters around the city helped the duo raise funds by enlisting relatives and friends to sell the shirts at their offices, and Internet sales pulled at the heartstrings of civilians as far away as Italy and France. Even a German firefighter bought a Sweeney shirt, Chille said.
Kristen Sweeney said she feels the Staten Island firefighters have become part of her family.
"They still call me once a week to make sure I'm okay and the boys are okay," said the 31-year-old mom. "Twenty years from now, I can call them and they'll be there."
Of her late husband's bond with the firefighters, she said: "It's a brotherhood, just like the SF [special forces]. Paul was very down-to-earth. I think a lot of those guys are the same way - it was just an instant connection."
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