FDNY Memorial Day Service Draws 1000s to Morningside Heights

Undeterred by the morning drizzle, thousands of New York’s Bravest made their way to Morningside Heights for the annual FDNY Memorial Day service on Wednesday Oct. 8. The event pays tribute to FDNY members who have died during the previous year, regardless of the cause.

Usually held outdoors at the FDNY Memorial inside Riverside Park, at Riverside Drive and West 100th, it was decided only on the night before the event that it would be moved inside to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, as it became very likely that the rainy forecast would indeed materialize.

Because the event is so enormous, a change of venue wasn’t a small undertaking. It had been done before, however—most recently in 2019—and the first-time attendee to the Memorial wouldn’t know that FDNY, with help from NYPD, hadn’t been taking over the huge cathedral, and all of Amsterdam Avenue between 110th and 113th streets, every year for decades.

Though the scene would have been impressive under any circumstances, the alternating mist and light rain with temperatures in 60s added an apt dramatic quality to the occasion.

At the 96th Street exit, Amsterdam Avenue itself was teeming with FDNY members young and old as the morning approached 11 a.m. As one approached 110th Street, where NYPD had closed off Amsterdam Avenue, one realized that not everyone had taken the train; numerous private buses had been chartered for the occasion. Because thousands of firefighters, EMTs, and other FDNY members have thousands of bladders, an ample number of portable toilets had been set up on the side streets west of Amsterdam.

There was also an FDNY coffee-and-refreshments truck present, though the famed Hungarian Pastry Shop at 1030 Amsterdam was doing a brisk business also. Though usually lamentable, the scaffolding that now obscures the shop did provide sidewalk shelter for latte sippers and apricot hamentashen noshers alike.

While the FDNY Ceremonial Unit was unfurling flags on the cathedral steps and announcements began for uniformed officers to begin filing into the sanctuary, there was time to ponder a man who wasn’t in attendance, Mayor Eric Adams.

Having skipped numerous parades over the last couple of weeks, the once crowd-loving Hizzoner continued his farewell disappearing tour by jetting off to Albania.

Speaking to Daily News reporter Chris Sommerfeldt, Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York President Andrew Ansbro, called Adams’s absence “extremely disappointing,” noting it was “the first time in memory that a sitting mayor had missed this solemn event.”

“Our members risk their lives every day to protect this city. To see the mayor overseas while the FDNY gathers to remember our fallen is deeply hurtful,” added Ansbro.

To bolster his accurate claims that the press will miss him when he’s gone, Hizzoner did offer an instant classic to any future Eric Adams quotebook, posting on X, “Visited Rruga e Hebrenjve, ‘Jewish Street,’ commemorating the city of Vlorë’s historic Jewish community that dates back centuries.

“Thank you for your warm hospitality, Albania! It’s just like being up in the Bronx or out on Staten Island with our Albanian brothers and sisters.”

The service itself was a remarkable and moving spectacle, as one would expect from an event with the FDNY Emerald Society Pipes and Drums Band in attendance. In Mayor Adams’s absence, Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Kaz Daughtry spoke, as did FDNY Chief of Operations John Esposito and Commissioner Robert Tucker. FDNY Chaplain Rabbi Joseph Potasnik gave the prayer of Invocation, while Father Peter Purpura delivered the Necrology.

Completing the ceremonial arc was the re-assembly, at the service’s conclusion, a formal review held outside, filling much of the cathedral’s steps and Amsterdam Avenue with a sea of dress blue uniforms and blue and white hats.

Remembering Those Who Passed

The members who were honored at the 118th FDNY Memorial Day Service are as follows. The circumstances of their death are shared only when they were publicly reported.

Captain Thomas LaBarbiera, Engine 93. Age 51, 23 years service, died of 9/11-related cancer. He “made a heck of a red sauce,” according to his sister, and loved the Grateful Dead.

Firefighter Patrick Sheridan, Engine 71. Age 62, 38 years service, nickname “Paddy-Do-Right.”

EMT Christopher Respol, EMS BOT (Bureau of Training). 21 years service; leaves behind his wife, Chaunte, and daughter, Olivia.

EMS Lieutenant Emilio Gonzalez, EMD - PSAC 1. 26 years service; funeral service held at St. Barbara Roman Catholic Church in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

EMS Lieutenant Nelson Seto, Station 38. Age 42, 11 years service. As reported by CBS News and the Daily News, there was a tragic irony regarding Soto’s death, which occurred after he suffered a cardiac arrest, called 911, and when two rookie EMTs arrived at his Brooklyn apartment and nobody answered—they violated protocol and left.

Captain Gregory Schmidt, Engine 8. Age 50, 22 years service. According to Greater Long Island, “The Stony Brook father of three coached his sons’ travel baseball teams, many times arriving straight from overnight firefighter shifts in New York City.”

EMT Christina Jo McKeen, EMS BOT. 10 years service. Funeral Mass at Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church, Roosevelt, L.I.

Firefighter Matthew Goicochea, Ladder 41. Age 31, almost 3 years service, died in an early-morning motorcycle crash on the FDR Drive.