Actor Donates Boat To Fire Department

BOSTON -- Massachusetts native and Emmy-nominated actor Denis Leary is helping local firefighters get the life-saving equipment they need.

NewsCenter 5's Jim Boyd reported that Leary plays a firefighter on the television show "Rescue Me." But the actor said he is devoted to seeing that real-life firefighters have what they need to do the best job.

Leary lost a cousin and a good friend in the Worcester warehouse fire in 1999. Since the fire, he has devoted himself to raising money for firefighters, their departments and their families.

After a brief life-saving demonstration in Boston Harbor, Leary donated a $250,000 speedboat to the Boston Fire Department.

"They have such needs for equipment and you say, 'Chief, what would you like to buy?' You know they need so much stuff. It's fantastic to be able to take the money and get them a boat or a tactical command unit. The money turns into physical stuff," Leary said.

Leary said he's astounded by the great needs that fire departments all over the country have and is happy to help.

Leary's organization has donated enough money to buy 15 rescue boats for the firehouses in New Orleans -- a need, Leary said, he learned of after Hurricane Katrina.

"When those guys went to save people a year ago, almost to the day, they had no rescue boats in any of the firehouses. In a city surrounded by water, they didn't have enough money to have one rescue boat in one firehouse," Leary said.

Leary encourages everyone to get involved and help raise money to help firefighters, who he said are always the first on the scene to help save lives.

"I don't care if it's your cat or a building blowing up -- it's always going to be the firefighters (responding). To me, wouldn't you want them to have the best equipment and the best training, so that when they got there they knew exactly what to do and how to do it in the best possible way? That's what I think," Leary said.

Leary's organization has donated about $7 million to fire departments across the nation.