I had no idea he was NYFD. He was definitely acting before September 2000. Reservoir Dogs was 1992. The Big Lebowski was 1998.
According to his wikipedia page
Buscemi was a New York City firefighter from 1980 to 1984, with Engine Company No. 55, in the Little Italy section of New York. The day after the 9/11 attacks in New York, he returned to his old firehouse to volunteer; he worked twelve-hour shifts for a week, and dug through rubble looking for missing firefighters
I think he’s been in acting since he was 17, but probably not making much money for awhile.
He was in Lonesome Dove, 1989.
Former. He says he got “a call to come help”... and the rest of the article is on the “toxicity” of the ruins from 9-11 and the effect on firefighters. It is a little much to talk about an experience that cannot compare to those we will never hear from, except the very few who managed to communicate with loved ones just before being killed. And example of this is Barbara Olsen on the Pentagon crash flight— a private conversation with her husband, the US Solicitor General. Never been released.
This seems like a kind of “actor’s” puff piece a “hey look at me”, unlike James Woods who was on a flight a week before 9-11 (Boston to LA) and called the FBI on 9-11 about the “dry run” of the hijackers, which the FBI verified. Woods remembered their faces.
After all if one wants to hear about overwhelming trauma—they should look into the physicians who served on identification labs for years after. Many of them quit medicine as a career.
He's been starring in The Miracle Workers with Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), for the past 3 years. It's a half-hour series that is on TBS every Tuesday. The last episode of this season (Oregon Trail), airs this coming Tuesday at 10 p.m. eastern time.