Firehouse 35 on Pier 22½ has seven men on duty at all times: four to serve Engine #35, and three dedicated to the two fireboats.
Mr. Ganci joined the department in the 1960's, serving in engine and ladder companies in Brooklyn and the Bronx during an era of crisis, when fire companies battled arson fires almost continually in the city's poorest neighborhoods.
Popovich built a scoring machine: a crowd-pleasing, age-serving engine.
Consumer durables like microwave ovens and computers have reduced the time necessary to accomplish some household tasks, serving as "engines of liberation" for women in particular.
The greatest average increase occurred in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, in the area once served by Engine Company 204.
He also served in Engine Company 59, and in Rescue Company 1, a unit that suffered heavy casualties in the World Trade Center collapse.
In Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, the neighborhood served by Engine Company 230, children would arrive at the firehouse with broken bicycles for Firefighter Whelan to make whole.
Only the neighborhood once served by Engine 261 in Long Island City will have to wait longer; the average response time should now be 5 minutes 10 seconds, compared to 4 08 before.
But when Mr. Ekins and his buddies first took to the hills, they wore aviator goggles and leggings, bolted on shovel blades to serve as engine protectors and did their own repairs.
He was constantly getting everyone else going -- serving as the engine behind the work of others.
