Street renaming honors late Brentwood Fire Chief Chris Allen

Chris Allen led the Brentwood Fire Department through 9/11 and volunteered with the agency for nearly 45 years, earning the status of community hero among fellow first responders and local officials before he died last year.

Allen’s name was etched into Long Island history Friday when Islip Town introduced “Chris J. Allen Way” as the new name for the crossroads of Broadway and Newman Street in Brentwood — an intersection around which Allen's life revolved.

He lived on Newman Street with his wife, Linda, and son, Christopher, now 26, for decades. His firehouse is less than 500 feet south of the intersection, on Broadway.

A street sign honoring Allen, who died of blood cancer at age 64 in January 2025, was unveiled at a ceremony on the cold afternoon.

“That intersection, where he responded through thousands of times over his career, would be the intersection to name in memory of him,” former Brentwood fire Capt. Myles Quinn, his longtime friend, said before the ceremony. “Every time we’re going to calls at that end of town, we’ll pass that intersection.”

Attendees, including dozens of uniformed firefighters, crowded a portion of Newman Street for the ceremony. Local officials, some who were Allen's friends, spoke. So did Christopher, his son.

“He loved to joke around. He loved to bust chops … [But] he knew there was a time and place for everything — there was a time to joke, and there was a time to get the job done,” he said. “And when it came time to be serious, he always knew he had to because it was time to help others.”

At the ceremony, Allen’s wife, Linda, pulled down a blue sleeve covering the new sign. 

Quinn hopes the sign will keep Allen alive in the minds of future generations. “I would like people to always look up and ask, ‘Who was that guy who they named the street after?’” he said.

'Who was that guy?'

"Mr. Allen was one of our heroes in every way possible," Islip Councilman Jorge Guadrón, whose district includes Brentwood, told Newsday before the ceremony. "Not only because he served in the fire department, but he really, truly was a community member who really loved the community.”

Allen was a lifelong Brentwood resident whom Linda, before the ceremony, described as the “strong, silent type.”

“He’d be very happy in the back, in the corner, cheering on whatever — but not big into the spotlight,” said Linda, who married Allen in 1997.

He joined the Brentwood Fire Department in the early 1980s and ran a private business installing two-way communications systems in emergency vehicles. He became chief of the fire department in 2001, just in time to steer it through the response to the Sept. 11 attacks.

“He had to make some tough decisions back then. We got called to go into the city,” Quinn said. “He was worried about sending anybody in there that day, for obvious reasons. … To be a leader in a spot like that — it was a tough position for any chief officer.”

Allen's tenure as chief ended in 2003, but he continued to be actively involved with the department. “He loved that place. A bunch of the people there were like his second family,” Quinn said.

Christopher, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, accompanied his dad to the firehouse so frequently for meetings and events that the firefighters made him an honorary member of the company. Allen was “moved to tears by it," Quinn said.

'He wasn’t into bells and whistles'

In May 2022, Allen was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer that starts in the bone marrow.

He remained largely functional until June 2024, Linda said. He was able to spend his final Christmas at home but died surrounded by his family on Jan. 16 last year.

After his death, Allen’s neighbor across the street, Suffolk County Legis. Sam Gonzalez (D-Brentwood), spearheaded the intersection renaming. Islip’s Town Board unanimously voted to approve the symbolic renaming in January.

Linda, when asked what her husband would think of it, told Newsday that “he’d be honored, but he would also think, ‘Oh, well, that’s an awful lot.’”

“He wasn’t into bells and whistles, but he’d be honored by the fact that they did that,” she said.

Christopher told those gathered Friday that his father “didn’t like to do anything for any kind of recognition."

"He just wanted to do it because it was the right thing to do,” he said to the crowd before adding, “Thank you for being here and thank you for helping us keep his legacy alive.”