Lifesaving mettle means medals for firefighters who battled '24 Plainview blaze

For several minutes after he arrived at a Plainview housing complex engulfed in flames and on the verge of collapse, firefighter Brandon Cohen feared his father, also on the job, and already in the building, had died in the line of duty.

Then-Plainview First Asst. Chief Andrew Cohen’s radio had stopped working as he banged on doors to evacuate residents from the Harmon Shepherd Hill apartments in the early morning hours of Feb. 18, 2024. Brandon Cohen said he and his fellow firefighters "thought of the worst," after the extended radio silence.

But they went to work, beginning to douse the fire. To his relief, Nassau police said his father was safe but without a functioning radio.

Two residents died. Well over a dozen residents escaped the fire. Their rescuers — the Cohens and other members of the Plainview Volunteer Fire Department, as well as a pair of firefighters from Hicksville — received medals of valor Wednesday at an awards ceremony for their efforts 14 months ago.

"I don’t think we were doing anything extraordinary compared to what our job is supposed to be," said firefighter and medal recipient Dylan Harris, 23, in a phone interview Tuesday.

"I wish there was more that I could have done to help at the fire," Harris added.

Andrew Cohen, now chief of the department, said he attributed his survival, as well as that of a resident he and fellow firefighter Erik Rivera carried down the stairs and out of the burning building, to his son and Harris, who together commanded a hose line as debris collapsed around them, staving off the fire while rescue efforts were underway.

The Nassau County Fire Commission’s Firematic Awards Ceremony took place at the Tilles Center at LIU Post in Greenvale.

The February 2024 fire broke out about 5 a.m. in a second-story apartment. Brandon Cohen, Harris and Rivera, an ex-chief, were all asleep at home or at the firehouse when their pagers and phones started buzzing. They were soon in a fire engine with Alfred Mertz, an ex-fire captain, at the wheel. At the scene they dropped the hose line and began dousing the flames.

The water bursting from hoses was "probably what saved my life," said Andrew Cohen, adding that it forced him "down to the other end of the hallway" and away from the fire.

In another part of the burning building, Rivera said, he forced open a locked door on the second floor to find Mary Dowling, a resident, unresponsive in her unit.

While Brandon Cohen and Harris sprayed the fire, keeping it away from Rivera, the ex-chief and Andrew Cohen brought her to safety.

Dowling survived "because of the teamwork that was done," Rivera, 43, said. "If it wasn’t for" Brandon Cohen and Harris, he added, "who knows where we would be today."

While Andrew Cohen said he is proud of his members who are getting recognized for their "hard work," he feels undeserving of a medal for upholding his duty.

"I’m really proud of my son, but I really don’t want it," Cohen said. "We’re motivated by the mission, not the recognition. Being a volunteer fireman ... you do it because you love it and you want to save people and help people."

After firefighters knocked down some of the fire, Andrew Cohen said the incident commander let him, Lance Kozlovsky and Deputy Chief Evan Schatzberg, as well as Capt. Zachary Difronzo and ex-Captain Kevin Loomis, of the Hicksville Fire Department, to "carefully" reenter the building to try and rescue people trapped in the apartment across from the origin of the blaze.

"As a fireman, life is the No. 1 priority," Cohen said. "You’re willing to risk everything."