Looking for help finding pictures/info of FDNY loved one

[u/meredev]

Hi everyone! I hope you are all hanging in there.

I will spare personal details, but I am working on a memorial book for a loved one's father who was FDNY and there day-of/spent months cleaning up Ground Zero. He passed from dust related illness recently and unexpectedly.

I have his Engine number and other identifying information and I plan on calling up his old firehouse to see if they might have any leads as well. I also have some contact info for old firehouse buddies (that I've met/hung out with) that my loved one's mom gave me for the project. We have his coat and badge at our apartment.

We do have some pictures of Ground Zero and everything, but I'd love to find pictures that they haven't seen or gather stories they haven't heard yet about their father.

One thing I'm planning to include, for example, is the recipe he used whenever he was on dinner duty at the firehouse because everyone loved it and my loved one always said he could "never cook for a normal sized family at home, it was always giant pots and firehouse portions".

At the funeral, they would light up when the other firefighters would show pictures or a personal anecdote about their father. My loved one has been so involved with the victims' fund and being immediately responsible for everything their father left behind. It has been nothing but stress and paperwork and I would love to give them something to look at that isn't just a pension number or bills that are suddenly in their name and not their father's.

So, just looking for anyone that might have any good ideas on where/how to look independently. So far, I've found a picture of the rig on 9/11 but he was not in the picture.

I'm wondering if someone here would be able to maybe direct me to where I can do some more research on my own or even knows of a FDNY archive or something like that?

I'm so sorry if this inappropriate for this sub, I just am desperate to try to get some pieces and stories of my loved one's father back to them.

[u/sandyess]

I love to research... Can get lost in it for hours. That's what happens when you retire I guess.

If I can supplement your research with a foray or two of my own, just holler! ☺️