By Courtney Dentch
Community Board 13 voted unanimously Monday to approve a proposal to name a stretch of 87th Drive in honor of firefighter, author and Bellerose resident John Sineno.
The proposal, submitted by Fire Department Capt. Joe Governale and supported by board member Jim Delaney, calls for the block of 87th Drive between 247th and 248th streets to go by the name “Firefighter John Sineno Drive.” Although the board approved the measure unanimously, the City Council must also sign off on it.
Sineno drew on his experience as a firefighter and chef to write “The Firefighter's Cookbook” in 1986 and “The New Firefighter's Cookbook” 10 years later. He donated his profits from both to charities. Sineno also helped co-found the New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation at the Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan.
“He was a great human being,” Governale said of Sineno, who died at 73 in April. “He had great integrity and great dignity. Whoever went to John, he said 'yes.' I never heard him say no.”
Sineno started with the Fire Department in 1962 and was assigned to the “Fire Factory,” or Engine 58 in Harlem, one of the city's busiest houses, Governale said. On his first day, he put his culinary expertise to good use and continued to cook for his fellow firefighters until he retired in 1990, earning the nickname “Mama Sineno.”
“The Fire Factory is still my home away from home,” Sineno wrote in the preface of his second cookbook. “It is most certainly the place where I performed the role that gave me my greatest satisfaction, serving as a competent professional firefighter while meeting the culinary demands of an always-hungry group of muscular, raucous and often profane group of characters.”
During emergency situations, such as the riots that swept the city in the 1960s, Sineno would often stay at the firehouse during his time off, just to cook for his brethren, Governale said.
“He was a great guy to work with,” he said. “He made sure the firefighters ate. He took his time off and came back and made sure the 5,000 firefighters got something to eat.”
Sineno was also a quiet activist, putting in a good word for people but never taking credit, Governale said. In one case, Governale got into a bit of hot water for ridiculing a superior, he said. When he was summoned to headquarters, Governale was expecting to be yelled at, but Sineno had beat him there, he said.
“The captain said, 'he defended you like you were his son,'” Governale said. “John would just go behind the scenes to do things and you never knew it was done.”
CB 13 board member Paul Rubenfeld, who worked with Sineno at the “Fire Factory” remembered his fellow firefighter as a good man.
“You could not exaggerate the qualities, character, kindness of that man,” Rubenfeld said. “If it was up to me, I would name the whole of Jamaica Avenue for him.”
Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com, or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
