How Many Lost Firefighters?

For a fund raising project I’m working on, I need a simple answer. All the news outlets, and the City of New York, say that the FDNY lost 343 members on Sept. 11.

At the FDNY site http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/fdny/html/home2.html is a listing of all the lost men. A quick count shows 344 members lost.

Does the official count not include the First Deputy Commissioner (William Feehan?), or the Chief of Department (Peter J. Ganci)?

I need the proper number for a limited edition photograph I’m producing. Instead of every print in the run being numbered, they’ll each carry the name of a fireman, followed by the number of prints in the run (and susequently the number of lost men.)

Any FDNY dopers out there that can help me?

Anyone?

Not FDNY, but SFD

The number I keep seeing is 343, inclusive of the Chief and Deputy Commish. Try http://www.firehouse.com , they’re keeping a running total of the events of the 11th. Their list is combined with NYPD and the Port Authority, though.

Sorry if that didn’t help all that much…

Thanks for the response. The only other person who may not be included is the department chaplin, Father Judge. I’m not sure if he was rank-and-file and trained as a fireman.
The reason I need to know is this: I’m a photographer who produces a limited edition 5 X 7 inch black and white print every year as a holiday card.

It’s a signed and numbered edition of around 120; I send out maybe 110-115.

This year, I’m printing 344, only instead of numbering them (ex: 1/120) each one will carry the name of a lost fireman.

I’ll send out my usual 115 or so, with an appeal for everyone to buy another one for someone as a gift. A $35 check made out to the UFA Widows and Childrens fund gets an extra one; if I sell the remaining 229 I’ll raise just over eight thousand dollars.

The photograph is one of the few I ever took of the trade center. (I always thought they were two of the ugliest buildings in creation; Battery Park City is much nicer. I was looking through over eight hundred contact sheets last week, I doubt I have 36 frames with even a part of those towers in them.) I couldn’t adequetly descibe the image, and I can’t post it to my website yet. (Scanner problems.)

But I thought I should explain why I ask such a seemingly trivial question.