Recent FDNY personnel who died of 9/11-related ailments honored

Widows, children and others bereaved crammed into the lobby in Brooklyn of FDNY headquarters Tuesday to place 25 roses before a memorial wall, one each for department personnel who have died most recently of 9/11-related illnesses.

A third of the roses were for new names on the wall that belonged to Long Islanders — from Mineola, Ronkonkoma, Patchogue, Hauppauge, Freeport, Lindenhurst and two from Floral Park.

More than 250 FDNY personnel have now died of diseases blamed on airborne pollutants at Ground Zero from the World Trade Center’s collapse 20 years ago. That’s in addition to the 343 FDNY firefighters killed in the attacks on the trade center.

"While the losses suffered that day cannot be quantified — losses that continue to shape our lives and our families’ — our losses did not end that day," FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said at a dedication ceremony.

The 25 personnel added Tuesday to the wall — firefighters, captains, lieutenants, medics, a fire marshal and an electrical inspector — died between March 23, 2020 and May 16 of this year.

The most recent death memorialized on the wall: Thomas G. Oelkers, 46, of Floral Park, an NYPD cop who worked on the Ground Zero pile and then became an FDNY firefighter just after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. His death came nine months to the day after he was diagnosed with a 9/11-related ailment — cancer. He left three children behind: Camryn, 15, Juliet, 11, and Scarlett, 9.

On Tuesday, the two youngest attended the ceremony with their mom, Oelkers' widow, Erika.

"I think it’s important for them to come to stuff like this, because it’s easy just to remember him being sick the last nine months," she said of her daughters. "And I want them to see the great parts of this job. All the people from their dad’s firehouse that showed up today, and the way that the commissioner and everyone comes and honors all the members, even 20 years later, I think it’s the silver lining that we need to see."

At Tuesday’s ceremony in downtown Brooklyn, held late in the afternoon, hundreds gathered in the plaza outside FDNY headquarters for public remarks by the commissioner and chief of department, a harpist’s musical interlude, a video showing photos of the 25, and prayer and a Biblical reading by chaplains.

Then, just a subset — including the loved ones of those who died, FDNY brass and Catholic and Jewish chaplains — walked inside the lobby, where a silver bell tolled 25 times. Each name was read, and a rose placed on a wooden table in front of the wall. Some mourners wept, while others made the sign of the cross or looked skyward.

In his earlier remarks, the commissioner had noted that FDNY personnel deaths from Ground Zero pollutants have continued long past Sept. 11, 2001.

"In fact, that day was just the beginning for our department," Nigro said, "the beginning of losses that will sadly grow well past the 343, in the years to come."

The department has made grim preparations: The memorial wall is barely a quarter full.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.