Thousands pay tribute to FDNY personnel in Manhattan ceremony
The FDNY honors members of the department and other first responders who have died in the past year held at the FDNY memorial on Riverside Drive, in Manhattan, Wednesday. Credit: Marcus Santos
Eighteen FDNY firefighters, medics and other personnel who died during the past 10 months — including at least five from Long Island — were memorialized Wednesday on Manhattan’s Upper West Side at a 108-year-old monument.
Among the 18 remembered at the Firemen's Monument were Jesse Gerhard, a 33-year-old FDNY firefighter from Islip and Long Beach who on Feb. 16 collapsed in his firehouse from a “medical episode” the day after fighting a Queens blaze, and 31-year-old Timothy Klein, of Belle Harbor, who died April 24 while fighting a house fire in Brooklyn.
Jesse Gerhard`s family mourn as the FDNY honors members of the department who have died in the past year held at the FDNY memorial on Riverside Drive, in Manhattan, Wednesday. Credit: Marcus Santos
Following a formal ceremony with Mayor Eric Adams, Acting Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh and other FDNY officials, thousands of firefighters in dress uniforms walked past families of the 18 to pay their respects.
Kavanagh said of the occasion: “It’s for remembering smiles we shared with them on the rig or in the ambulance, or at the kitchen table, or after a long day in the academy. It’s for telling their stories and appreciating the impact of their lives.”
Of the 18 remembered on Wednesday, four of the deaths were deemed to have occurred in the line of duty; four others were related to ailments connected to work at Ground Zero after 9/11; and the rest from other causes. The deaths occurred between Dec. 3, 2021 and Aug. 19, 2022.
The FDNY didn’t provide causes, but last year first responders memorialized had died from COVID, off-duty car crashes and a medical condition; two died while on vacation.
The Firemen's Memorial, which dates to 1913 and sits atop a hillside at 100th Street facing the Hudson River, features a fountain basin, a grand staircase, and the monument depicting a bas-relief of horses drawing an engine to a blaze.
Attending yet another memorial was too overwhelming for some.
Seaford’s Kimberley Raftery, widow of EMS Lt. John P. Raftery, who died Dec. 27 of acute myeloid leukemia connected to his work at the Ground Zero pile, said her son Nicholas, age 16, stayed back on Long Island.
Last month, Lieutenant Raftery was remembered beside a memorial wall inside FDNY headquarters, in Brooklyn’s MetroTech complex, listing FDNY personnel who died of ailments linked to Ground Zero toxins.
“The 9/11 memorial at MetroTech was the last time that he had the stomach for it, cause he fell apart after that one,” she said of her son, a junior at General Douglas MacArthur High School in Levittown.
“John had him convinced that he was gonna to beat it, so for him it all feels really very sudden," she said before stepping into a FDNY van to take her back to Long Island, "and he met me at the door this morning, gave me a hug and a kiss, told me I’ll be here when you get home, mom.”
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
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