| For the second time in the last seven days, the firefighter community has once again been shaken by the unspeakable tragedy of losing a brother in the line of duty.
New York City Fire Department Lieutenant Richard Nappi (47), a veteran of the FDNY with seventeen years of dedicated service, collapsed while fighting a large multi-alarm warehouse fire in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Monday, April 16, 2012. Lieutenant Nappi died after being transported to the hospital.
According to FDNY Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano and department authorities, the fire broke out sometime after 4 p.m. when a pile of cardboard boxes ignited on the second floor of the building located on Flushing Ave.
Before joining the FDNY 17 years ago, Nappi served as a state parole officer and a caseworker for Suffolk County, on Long Island. Nappi was also a deputy chief instructor at the Suffolk County Fire Academy in Yaphank, "teaching thousands of firefighters how to stay safe and how to extinguish fires; he was dedicated, he was brave, and he was committed to the fire service." Commissioner Cassno stated.
A resident of Farmingdale, Long Island, Lieutenant Nappi is survived by his wife and two children, a 12-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son.
On the day of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Nappi was assigned to Engine 7 in lower Manhattan.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke of Lieutenant Nappi as follows; "He responded with valor to the World Trade Center attacks,"…"He helped save and rebuild the city."
The last FDNY firefighter to die in the line of duty was in August 2009 when a firefighter died of an apparent stroke, while looking for a working hydrant at a fire in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The last fatality before that was in January 2008, when a fire lieutenant died battling a fire in Brooklyn's Crown Heights
The death marks the first fatality for the department this year.
The membership of the Lionville Fire Company extends sincerest condolences and prayers to the family of Lieutenant Richard Nappi and the members of the FDNY. |
