Navarra was born in the summer of 1952, he joined the Staten Island Athletic Club as a teenager. In 1976 he performed volunteer work for the marathon. He spent 21 years in the Fire Department, 10 of those as a lieutenant with Ladder Company 35 at 66th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan. He retired in 1997, but he volunteered at the firehouse and participated in the search for survivors at the World Trade Center site after the attacks of September 11, 2001.