FDNY members Jesse B. Gerhard of Long Beach and William P. Moon II of Islip added to memorial wall in Albany

A memorial wall in Albany to honor firefighters who have died is getting 29 more names — including at least two Long Islanders who died in 2022 and one from Brockport who died in 1882. 

Jesse B. Gerhard of Long Beach and William P. Moon II of Islip, who both worked for the FDNY, are among those being memorialized.

“They're not just a name on a wall, they’re a human being,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a ceremony Tuesday attended by firefighters’ families.

Gerhard, 33, who also was from Islip, had collapsed Feb. 16, 2022, in the firehouse, of what the FDNY has described as "a medical episode" one day after fighting a house fire nearby.

Moon died of head injuries sustained in a 20-foot fall Dec. 12 as he was getting ready for a drill at his Brooklyn firehouse.

Jackie Bray, the state's commissioner of the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, noted that Tuesday's ceremony took place amid a grim milestone surpassed last month: there have now been at least as many FDNY deaths post-Sept. 11, 2001, of illnesses blamed on toxic air at Ground Zero, as on the day of the attacks themselves: 343.

The wall, at Empire State Plaza, is inscribed with the names of firefighters in New York who have died since 1811. It was dedicated in 1998 and has a bronze statue backed by a granite wall. Almost 2,700 names are listed on the wall.

"The ten-foot-high statue represents two firefighters rescuing an injured comrade, and is the work of artist Robert Eccleston of Schuyler Falls. In concept, the firefighters are dragging their comrade away from the wall of death. The wall is fifty-four feet long and fifteen feet high, with the names of the firefighters placed randomly to allow for additions," the memorial's website says.

Bray said that on the list of 29 on be added is the Brockport firefighter, Freeman J. Board, who died in June 1882. He had been appointed in 1877 to be a firefighter. 

"When a fire broke out shortly before midnight, he wasn't on duty, he wasn't scheduled to work that night, but he showed up anyway, and he perished helping others to safety," Bray said. "People have been helping people out of fires and to safety for a very long time in this state."

It was unclear why Board's name is being added now rather than in years past.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.