Jason Powell: Harlem’s Firefighter Mystery Writer

Fern Gillespie
New York City firefighter Jason Powell leads a double life. For almost eight years, his day job has been charging into burning buildings in Harlem as a firefighter to save lives. His moonlighting job has been penning the mystery fiction series No Man’s Ghost, about a young Black firefighter in Harlem who balances, his personal life, with saving the lives of Harlem neighbors from burning buildings.

The heroics of the New York City firefighters who charged into the World Trade Center inspired him. Powell was too young to witness the horror of watching New York City firefighters race into the burning Twin Towers and then see the buildings collapse on live television. However, as a young adult, a documentary on the role of those firefighters sacrificing their lives in Lower Manhattan emotionally moved him.

“When the Twin Towers were hit, it affected the communications for the fire department. So, at one point, the captain was on the 51st floor, and he called the dispatcher to get a handle on it. The recording was played in the documentary. He says, ‘We’re on the 51st floor, and everyone below us is out. We are signing out,’” Powell told Our Time Press. “I have to think that at that point in the operation, he and his team knew that they were probably going to die, but they kept doing their jobs to make sure that everyone they could get out could get out.

That was the first time that it occurred to me what firefighters do. Which is to say the only time that they’re actually working is when someone calls for help. Their job description is to help people.”

Working at various jobs was an integral part of Powell’s life. Including the New York Fire Department, he’s held 11 jobs. Powell, the youngest of nine children, spent his youth in Brooklyn. He was born in Brookdale Hospital and raised by his parents in Red Hook and East Flatbush. While working in a shoe store, a chance meeting with NYFD recruiters at Kings Plaza Mall became a life-changer. The Vulcan Society, the fraternal organization of Black firefighters, reached out and mentored him with test prep classes and programs. He scored 100 on the NYFD exam. After four rigorous years, Powell became a probation firefighter assigned to Harlem.

Working and living in Harlem, people sometimes recognize him in plain clothes. He might have often been to their house for a fire or gas leak. “I would have frequently been in my neighborhood, and people would remember me for seeing me on the job. That would be a cool experience,” he said. “Going and helping people and they remember you for that–it’s a great cool thing.”

For Powell, his life continues to inspire his art. He was a firefighter at the tragic Harlem movie set in 2018, where a blazing fire in a brownstone used for the production of the Edward Norton-directed film “Motherless Brooklyn” killed firefighter Michael Davidson.

“We were fighting the fire. I didn’t feel that we were in danger. We were familiar with the building that we were in. It had building inspections,” Powell recalled. “But it became a movie set, and now there were false walls. Where I was trying to put out the fire there wasn’t any problem. But it turns out there were fires behind the walls that we did not know about.”

“A friend of mine, who was a firefighter in the first house that I was assigned to, Michael Davidson, died at that fire that we were fighting on the Harlem movie set,” he said. “So, my character firefighter Charles Davids in No Man’s Ghost is a homage to him.”

No Man’s Ghost tells the story of a probationary firefighter during his first week out of the academy. Charles Davids finds himself investigating a mysterious spree of escalating fire and gas reports in Harlem that surround a couple. Publisher’s Weekly calls the book “a promising Debut for Powell” and “a love letter to firefighters.”

“Charles Davids is very conscious of being good at what he does. He wants to be an asset to wherever he is. He’s a family man. He lives with his mother, a widow,” said Powell. “What’s important to him are his relationships, whether they are with his coworkers, friends, or his girlfriend. They are valuable to him, and he wants to be valuable to them.”

Powell continues to embrace new opportunities in career and life. In 2022, he transferred to the FDNY Hazmat Unit, where he attended bomb and radiation courses and dealt with the crisis of combustible scooter batteries facing New Yorkers. His FDNY goals include courses on being promoted to lieutenant. Racheal Ray’s magazine’s special feature on cooking firefighters, spotlighted his gourmet skills with steak alfredo.

Balancing writing and firefighting are no easy feats. Already, he’s completed book number two on firefighter Charles Davids and is working on number three in the series. To hone his writing craft and promote No Man’s Ghost, Powell attends book conferences, takes online master writing classes, works with his literary agent’s writers group, and is an active member of Crime Writers of Color, an organization of BIPOC mystery authors.

“Most writers that I know hate the act of writing. They do love writing. But, it’s about the ideas, clearing our heads and the act of putting it to paper can be tedious,” he explained. “It’s hard, but it’s fun when you complete it.”