City Mourns a Dedicated Firefighter

The bravery and dedication of Fire Lieutenant Robert Ryan are remembered as his funeral arrangements are set for this week. Ryan, a 17-year FDNY vet who worked in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island, died in a Staten Island fire yesterday morning.

Ryan was inside a house in New Brighton when the second floor collapsed onto him; his helmet and air mask were knocked off. The FDNY believes the fire was not suspicious and was started by faulty wiring. Battalion Chief John J. McDonnell said, "We are conducting interviews with the other firefighters that were with him, and the other officers, to try to put together exactly what circumstances occurred to create such a tragedy."

Ryan was seriously injured on the job in 2006. The NY Times reports that "molten plastic" from a smoke detector dripped on Ryan's "fire jacket and across his neck and shoulders. It was the kind of injury that could have tempted others to leave the Fire Department, but he chose to stay, spending a year recuperating, and returning to work in 2007 with twisted pink scars above his shirt collar." Captain Thomas Henri said, "The whole back of his head, all down the back of his neck... they were third-degree burns."

His brother-in-law told the Daily News, "Nothing was going to take him out of this job except for when God called him to His side," and added, "When he hugged you, you knew he meant it." Ryan's survivors include his wife Kathleen and their four children, ages 8 to 17; here's his obituary in the Staten Island Advance.