More than 10,000 firefighters from around the East Coast came to Flushing to pay their respects to Thomas Brick, the second of New Yorks Bravest to die on duty since the September 11th attacks, Saturday.
"We can’t let [his death] diminish his life, the amazing joy of a young man who was living his dream while serving others," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a eulogy about this decorated fallen hero. The mayor, as well as FDNY commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, addressed a packed crowd at St. Kevins Roman Catholic Church, which included members of Bricks company, Ladder 36, and the two young children he left behind.
While bagpipes bleated dirges, Bricks casket was carried in a fire truck through the streets of Flushing with members of FDNY companies throughout the city and fellow Bravest from companies in Rhode Island, Massachussets, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut saluting their fallen comrade as he passed by.
Brick, 30, a resident of Flushing, was one of 150 firefighters to respond to a four-alarm blaze in a furniture and mattress warehouse on 10th Avenue in Inwood, on December 16. He was one of five firefighters doing a search-and-rescue operation in the building when he was separated from his group. Firefighters went looking for Brick after he was gone for 10 minutes. They found him badly burned and in cardiac arrest, covered with mattresses that had collapsed on him.
FDNY is reportedly investigating whether Bricks "personal alert system" was working properly at the time of his death. The device, which attaches to a firefighters oxygen mask, is supposed to sound an alarm if a firefighter stops moving. Bricks "personal alert system" may have malfunctioned during the blaze.
The young firefighter was a member of the first class to graduate the FDNY academy after the World Trade Center disaster. He was appointed to his company at the end of October 2001.
"He was part of a group of brave young men and women who were rebuilding the fire department after that tragedy," said the mayor in a press conference last week.
Early this year, Brick and other members of Ladder 36 received the Thomas R. Elsasser Memorial Medal for rescuing two occupants in a five-story multiple dwelling in Manhattan.
Brick is the the 1,127th NYC firefighter to die in the line of duty.
He was the father of a four-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son.
The fallen hero was laid to rest at St. Patricks Cemetery in Huntington, Long Island.
