GET ’EM, BOYS, 2008
Gouache on paper. 24.8 x 36.3 in.
Private collection
The New York City Fire Department could be made up of volunteers who dove death-defyingly into the flames to save a family from a burning house. There were also units who found looting more appealing than saving lives, or who once let a house burn down to collect an insurance settlement. The infamous William "Boss" Tweed, who at the head of the Democratic Party machine Tammany Hall was instrumental in regulating New York's politics and money flows, had begun his career with a New York firefighting unit, the legendary Big Six. A role in the fire department prepared more than a few for a later position in politics.
Sometimes the conflicts between firefighting units got so out of hand that desperate residents witnessed their houses burning down, while the firefighters who had rushed over beat each other up. Extinguishing the fire was therefore out of the question.