It was 8:46 Thursday morning and FDNY Engine 3, Ladder 12 was ordered into formation by Chief John Gormley. There they stood in dress blues, shoulder-to-shoulder, in straight lines that went six deep.

A firefighter critically hurt battling a five-alarm Bronx fire was greeted with cheers and claps at his release from the hospital Tuesday. FDNY Engine 81 fireman William Levering walked out of New ...