The FDNY is going ahead with a controversial calendar that features 13 of its bravest and brawniest members in bare-chested poses, including three who died on Sept. 11.
The “Calendar of Heroes” was scrapped last fall as it was going to press, but families of the fallen firefighters have now endorsed a revised version that will go on sale nationwide in July.
“With everything that happened in September, we decided it wasn’t going to be done. Then people got upset about it,” said a Fire Department spokeswoman.
“The families actually expressed that they wanted it to move forward.”
The $15 calendar features 13 hunks from fire companies throughout the five boroughs. Three of the men – Robert Cordice, Thomas Foley and Angel Juarbe – died on Sept. 11.
Cordice, 28, a member of Squad 1, is shown bare-chested astride the famous bronze bull sculpture in the city’s Financial District.
Photographer Alan Batt said that while he was posing the firefighter, a group of out-of-town high school girls were watching “and they went absolutely wild.”
Cordice’s mother, Caroline, said she is proud to see her son in the calendar, although she noted he “always wore a shirt.”
Robert was her only child and “best friend,” she said.
Juarbe, 35, a seven-year veteran of Ladder Co. 12 in Chelsea, was the winner of Fox’s reality-TV show “Murder in Small Town X.”
He was among the first wave of firefighters to arrive at the World Trade Center after a jet hit the north tower.
The original cover photograph, taken in August, showed firefighter Danny Keane standing with the World Trade Center in the background.
That picture was replaced with a new shot featuring the Empire State Building.
Keane said he’s pleased the families of the three dead firefighters endorsed the project. “This was the last great memory of their sons,” he said.
Part of the proceeds will go to the department’s Fire Safety Education Fund.