Rally to push for Malverne firefighter on memorial wall

Volunteer firefighters from across Long Island plan to rally Sunday in an effort to push the state to add a Malverne firefighter to the 2,300 names already on its Fallen Firefighter Memorial wall in Albany.

Another Long Island firefighter, Huntington Manor's Richard Holst, was approved recently on appeal.

Paul Brady, 42, of Malverne, was crushed while doing maintenance on the roof of a truck that pulled out of the firehouse on its way to a training exercise in July 2006. For four years, the Fallen Firefighter committee has rejected proposals by the Malverne department to include Brady on the memorial wall, with the latest appeal denied on Aug. 9. The department has filed an Article 78 lawsuit against the committee, asking for Brady's inclusion on the wall.

"The circumstances surrounding the death of Firefighter Paul Brady are tragic. However, we stand by the decision of the New York State Fallen Firefighters Memorial Committee. We cannot comment any further because of the pending litigation," read a statement from the state Office of Fire Prevention and Control, whose fire administrator is one of three members of the commission.

Brady's death was considered line of duty by the state's workers' compensation board, which is paying his widow under its description of "line of duty death," and Brady's name is included on the National Fallen Firefighters memorial wall in Maryland, the Malverne department said.

Assemb. Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach) has sponsored legislation to share responsibility for inclusion decisions between the committee and other government agencies.

"Paul Brady died in the firehouse, in uniform, doing what he is supposed to do, checking the truck," Weisenberg said

Sunday's rally begins at 10 a.m. in front of Nassau County Supreme Court in Mineola.

"We're very disappointed at the decision of this committee," said Malverne firefighter and public information officer David Gildea. "However we are confident that Paul's name will eventually go on the wall where it belongs."

Criteria for the wall state that accidents that occur while the individual is engaged in "classroom training, other nonstrenuous training activity or physical fitness training" would be denied, but records show firefighters have been included after dying in accidents, of heart attacks and in one instance, during military duty in Iraq.

Holst, 60, originally denied but then approved by the appeals board, had a heart attack at the scene of a house fire. His family held a memorial service at St. Hugh of Lincoln Roman Catholic Church in Huntington Station Thursday, the first anniversary of his death. "It was clearly a line of duty death," said Holst's widow, Noreen.