Q&A with Denis Leary

Q: You've done a lot of great work with your charity, The Leary Firefighters Foundation. Tell us about what you do.   

A: My charity is in the business of helping firefighters in any way that we can. For instance, after 9/11 we were the second-fastest charity to raise and distribute money to the widows and surviving family members of the 343 firefighters who died that day. Predominantly what we do, our mission, is to secure and build training facilities and equipment for firefighters. We've concentrated on Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts, and New York. I started after a fire killed my cousin Jerry Lucey in December 1999 helping the Worcester fire department. And then we started to help the FDNY and the families down here after 9/11. We've since helped in New Orleans and in the Carolinas—and we're about to do some fundraising for the Philadelphia Fire Department because they've had some massive layoffs due to the economy.