|
|
 |
 |
Hundreds of Staten Island residents were among the thousands of active and retired firefighters who participated in the Fire Department's 97th annual memorial day ceremony in Manhattan yesterday.
The somber gathering took place at the Firemen's Memorial, a Riverside Park monument dedicated in 1913 to honor all city firefighters who have given their lives in the line of duty.
Quoting from the memorial's inscription, Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised the city's firefighters as "soldiers in a war that never ends."
"As the mayor, I want to thank you, all of you, for answering the call," added Bloomberg as he addressed the thousands of firefighters who stood in formation in dress uniform along Riverside Drive during yesterday's 45-minute service.
Joining Bloomberg at the ceremony were the Fire Department's highest-ranking officials, including Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, Chief of Department Peter Hayden and Chief of Operations Salvatore Cassano, a Huguenot resident.
The dignitaries began the ceremony by placing three wreaths in front of the memorial. The wreaths paid tribute to deceased firefighters and members of the city Emergency Medical Service, which was merged into the Fire Department in 1997.
Bloomberg said 1,127 members of the Fire Department have been killed in the line of duty since the department was founded in 1865. The department's most recent fallen heroes are Thomas C. Brick, a 30-year-old Queens resident who was killed in a Manhattan warehouse fire on Dec. 16, 2003, and James J. O'Shea, a 41-year-old Long Island resident who suffered a fatal heart attack after battling a Queens fire on Sept. 27, 2003.
"This morning we come together to pay tribute to members like Thomas Brick and James O'Shea, who made the supreme sacrifice," Bloomberg said. "The bravery they displayed in their final moments epitomizes the courage and commitment that members of the FDNY show all the time."
Before heading to the Riverside Drive service, a group that included about 60 retired firefighters attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the Firefighters Memorial in Concord.
A member of the group, John Dunne of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, said the Fire Department's memorial day is "the most solemn day in the FDNY calendar."
"Firefighters are taught, when they are probies [probationary firefighters], that if you're not working in the firehouse, you belong up on Riverside Drive today," said Dunne, a Grymes Hill resident. "It's a day we set aside to remember our own who have given their lives."
John Sollazzo, president of the United Retired Firefighters Association and the FDNY Retirees, Staten Island Division, led the brief ceremony in Concord. A blessing was given by the Rev. Everett Wabst, a retired firefighter from Lighthouse Hill.
"It's very important," said Sollazzo, a Castleton Corners resident, of the significance of retired firefighters showing solidarity with their fallen brothers. "It's a day of remembrance." |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
