NEW YORK (AP) – A veteran New York City firefighter died this week after falling 20 feet inside his firehouse while preparing for a training exercise, officials announced Friday.
Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said William P. Moon II was preparing for a drill inside his Brooklyn firehouse on Monday when he fell and suffered a severe head injury.
After it became clear on Friday that Moon would not survive, his family “made the difficult decision to donate his organs to save the lives of others,” said Mayor Eric Adams, who said organ donation is so that others To be kept alive, Moon makes “a hero twice over.”
Moon, 47, is survived by his wife and two children.
Department chief John Hodgens, who was joined by Adams, Kavanagh and other officials at a City Hall news conference, said the fatal fall occurred while preparing for a Moon training exercise at the Rescue Company 2, firehouse in Brooklyn.
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Hodgens said Moon joined the department in May 2002 and spent nearly 20 years at a ladder company in Queens before being transferred to Rescue 2 last January, a specialized unit that not only fights fires but hangs windows from scaffolding. also rescues washers and trapped construction workers. In collapsed buildings.
“This type of work requires extensive training,” Hodgens said. “Billy was preparing for one of these training exercises when this tragic accident happened.”
Officials did not release further details about the fall.
Authorities said that in addition to his service with the New York City Fire Department, Moon was a volunteer firefighter in Islip on Long Island, where he lived and served as that department’s chief in 2017.
In a statement read by Kavanagh, Moon’s wife, Christina, said her husband “always talked about how important it was to help others.”
Christina Moon said, “We are eternally grateful for the miracles of Christmas that Billy will now be able to give to others.”
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