9/11 and a dirty secret

last updated 8 January 2015

New York

A dozen New York City firefighters have left their wives for the widows of comrades who died on Sept. 11, the New York Post reported this week. Some of the affairs started after the fire department sent the men to help the widows and their children cope with their losses. “It’s the department’s dirty little secret,” said Mary Koenig, whose husband, Gerry, left her for the wife of a fallen friend. Psychiatrists said the counseling program was a recipe for disaster; it brought together firemen eager to help a “damsel in distress” and widows hoping to be rescued. “My husband rushed to ground zero,” Koenig said, “and he basically never came home.”