Situated on the West Side of Hell's Kitchen, FDNY Rescue Company 1 has long acted as a guardian over Manhattan. Organized over a century ago, on March 8, 1915, Rescue 1 is a specialized unit staffed with elite firefighters trained to handle complex rescue operations. With one captain, three lieutenants, and 25 to 30 firefighters divided into various tours serving the streets of Manhattan below 116th Street in East Harlem and 125th Street in Morningside Heights and Harlem. Their firehouse, at 530 West 43rd Street between 10th and 11th Avenue, was rebuilt after its own calamity in 1985 when a fire in a neighboring warehouse obliterated their original headquarters.
But of all the chapters in Rescue 1's storied history, none is as haunting as its role during the September 11 attacks. Answering the call to the North Tower, nearly half of the company's firefighters perished that day. They were one of the first units to ascend the stairwell of the doomed building. The legacy of Captain Terence S Hatton, who was lost in the attacks, reverberates through the fleet of rescue trucks he designed, emblazoned with his spirited motto, "Outstanding," and his initials "T.H." In 2005, their section of West 43rd Street was poignantly renamed Terence S Hatton Way. Hatton was was nicknamed "Captain Man-Hatton" for his insistence on learning the borough’s buildings inside and out.
