Archives of the Mayor's Press Office

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Wednesday, October 11, 2000

Release #388-00

 
Contact: Michael Anton/Julie Caudell 212/788-2958
  Frank Gribbon, FDNY 718/999-2056

MAYOR GIULIANI AND FIRE COMMISSIONER VON ESSEN
HONOR THE MEMORY OF 14 OF NEW YORK CITY'S BRAVEST

Preside at 88th Firefighters' Memorial Ceremony

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and New York City Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen today paid tribute to the 14 Firefighters of the New York City Fire Department who died this past year during a memorial service at the Firemen's Memorial Monument on West 100th Street and Riverside Drive.

"Today we are here to pay tribute and to remember our City's greatest heroes," said Mayor Giuliani. "We pay tribute to the men and women whose strength, courage and love led them to have lay down their own lives for the people of our City. This monument stands here as a tribute to their spirit and a reminder to all New Yorkers that human beings are capable of great deeds … and that the virtues of the brave and the selfless - while perhaps too rare - are still very real.

"But this year is a different kind of Firefighters' Memorial Ceremony, because in the past year, not a single active firefighter lost his or her life in the line of duty. This has only happened twice in the 1990s - in 1990 and 1997 and New Yorkers are both grateful and relieved," the Mayor concluded.

"Every year on this solemn day, we come to the Firemen's Monument on Riverside Drive to remember those in the Department who have died during the previous year," said Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen. "This year, we are grateful that not one uniformed member has died in the line of duty. However, we mourn the loss of 14 active members who died during the last 12 months, and join with their families today in remembering them and their service and dedication to the Department."

During the memorial service, Mayor Giuliani and Fire Commissioner Von Essen joined Chief of Department Peter J. Ganci Jr., Uniformed Firefighters Association President Kevin Gallagher, and Uniformed Fire Officers Association President Peter Gorman, to place wreaths at the monument before pausing for a moment of silence.

The members of the Department who have died since October 1, 1999 were:


In the spring of 1908 at the funeral of Fire Chief Kruger, Bishop Potter suggested that a monument be erected in honor of the City's many fallen firefighters. A committee was formed and it commissioned architect H. van Buren Magonigle and sculptor Attilio Piccirilli to design the monument. The design includes an approach of steps, a platform with balustrade, a fountain basin and the monument. The central architectural element is a marble sarcopha-gus on which is mounted a large bronze tablet depicting three galloping horses pulling a fire engine. Marble figures flank the sarcophagus, Sacrifice on the north and Duty on the south. Sacrifice is a partially draped woman supporting the limp body of her dead husband, a firefighter killed in the line of duty. Duty is a mother seated next to a fire hydrant, holding a fire helmet and raincoat against her lap as she shelters the young son next to her.

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