By Stephen McKinley
Even full-time New York City firefighters do a little moonlighting, it seems. Some get to grips with handiwork in their spare time, others tread the boards of the stage as amateur actors.
Danny Keane, of Engine 1, Ladder 7, likes to relax with a spot of modeling on the cover of New York magazine.
Interviewed by the Echo two weeks ago, about a play that dealt with firefighters’ grief after Sept. 11, Keane, an Irish American, failed to let slip that he would soon be featured in his own drama, dressed in full firefighting gear and being mauled for the camera by model Melanie Knauss on the recent New York magazine cover.
Keane and Knauss were given top billing by the magazine to announce the results of the magazine’s Valentine’s poll, “Love after 9/11.” So how was Danny enjoying his new-found stardom? Were his colleagues proud of him? And, in the end, how keen was Knauss on Danny?
A visit to Keane’s firehouse, Engine 1, Ladder 7 on Duane Street in lower Manhattan, failed to glean any further information. Keane was off-duty. His comrades in firefighting were tight-lipped. Had they been giving young Danny a hard time?
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“Of course not,” said one firefighter with a glint in his eye, as if to say, “How could we be so cruel . . . to pass up the opportunity?”
However, one piece of information did slip out. All that hanging out with models and fashion photographers, interspersed with his regular job as a firefighter? He’s still single. So they say.