FDNY medals named for fallen Bravest from Long Island
The wife of William P. Moon II will receive a medal Wednesday named for her husband, an FDNY firefighter killed in a December training accident.
Credit: FDNY
Two new medals, one in honor of an FDNY paramedic from Huntington Station fatally stabbed on the job, the other, a tribute to a city firefighter, also an Islip resident, killed in a training accident, will go to their first recipients Wednesday at a ceremony in Flushing.
FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh and New York City Mayor Eric Adams are set to lead the morning event, where the Capt. Alison Russo North Star medal will go to EMS Capt. Edgar Baez for his leadership responding last September after a Queens man stabbed Russo to death.
The William P. Moon II Medal of Life will go to Kristin Moon, the wife of the Islip man whose name graces the award. FDNY firefighter William P. Moon II, "Billy" to those who knew him, fell to his death in December during training at his firehouse.
“EMS Captain Alison Russo and Firefighter Billy Moon are true heroes whose lives were spent doing good deeds and public service,” FDNY spokeswoman Amanda Farinacci said Tuesday. “We have created medals in their honor to ensure their legacy of bravery, leadership and service for decades to come.”
FDNY paramedic Alison Russo, 61, of Huntington Station, was fatally stabbed last September near her Astoria firehouse.
Credit: Craig Ruttle
On Sept. 29, Russo, 61, of Huntington Station, was stabbed 19 times in an unprovoked attack while returning to her Astoria firehouse, Station 49. Russo also served for decades as a volunteer at the Huntington Community First Aid Squad. A Queens man was charged with second-degree murder and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon in Russo's killing.
Moon, 47, died after falling 20 feet preparing for a training drill at his Brooklyn firehouse Dec. 12. Before his death, Moon was an advocate for organ donation. His wife has helped carry on his legacy promoting how her husband’s organs were able to extend the lives of 9/11 first responders.
Moon’s organs went to save the lives of recipients who received transplants immediately following his death.
Other firefighters will also be honored Wednesday. Firefighter Arthur Podgorski of Ladder 108 will receive the Chief of Department Peter J. Ganci Jr. Medal and the New York Honorary Chiefs Association Medal for his role in a 20-story rope rescue at a Manhattan fire. Eight medals will also be awarded to firefighters for the rescue of multiple people trapped during the fire.
Lt. Shlomo E. Winkler and Paramedic Kira L. Watkins of Station 45 in Woodside, Queens, will receive the Christopher J. Prescott Medal for the rescue of a person trapped and injured in an elevator shaft.
John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.
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