Among 70 Honorees at FDNY Medal Day Are 18 Who Answered the Call in Manhattan
Five firefighters and a battalion chief involved in a daring roof rescue in Harlem last year were honored along with six involved in a complicated auto extraction in Corlears Hook Park.
| 05 Jun 2025 | 06:44
Thousands of firefighters, their families, and friends filled the plaza and lawns at City Hall Park on June 4 for the annual FDNY Medal Day ceremony.
However impressive Medal Day appears on screen—the city itself live-streamed the ceremony on YouTube—or from outside the fences of City Hall Park, it’s much more remarkable being there among the energetic and often amusing FDNY members themselves. One colorful contingent showed up dressed in Hawaiian shirts and leis to support their colleagues although most firefighters stuck to official dress blues.
Prior to the start, dozens of medal winners and their families gathered on the lawn east of City Hall for breakfast and conversation. Other FDNY members socialized or were involved in the final logistics—which were very carefully managed, including a designated stroller-parking area, stacks of Medal Day books, seating charts, and ample supplies of water, coffee, and tea available to those outside the medal winner area.
The medals themselves were impressive and arrayed in cases on the east side of City Hall, next to a reviewing platform where the high FDNY brass and other VIPS would be seated during the ceremony.
A sizable broadcast stand facing City Hall was also home to some of the dozens of banners honoring medal winners festooned across the plaza and presented an inspiring testament to the esprit de corps that defines a firehouse.
The ceremony formally began around 11:15am, about 15 minutes late from its official starting time, with an invocation, the national anthem sung by firefighter Regina Wilson, and words from Mayor Adams.
“Think about the natural instincts that’s associated with fright and flight,” Adams told the assembled. “Any time you see danger, you have a natural instinct to want to survive and run away from the danger that you are facing. If it’s a fire, or if it’s an emergency, or any form of action that can bring you physical harm.”
Adams continued, “Imagine going against the natural instinct, instead of fleeing from danger, running towards the danger, to sacrifice yourself to save the lives of your fellow New Yorkers.”
Adams, FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker, and First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro were present for the first awards, with first Adams and then Mastro slipping out after a while, and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kaz Daughtry, well dressed in a dark suit, moving in.
Among the 70 firefighters and EMTs sharing 50 different awards, 18 first responders who answered the call for emergencies in Manhattan in 2024 were honored. And so were four EMTs who participated in ocean rescues.
Five firefighters and one battalion chief were honored for three separate rope roof rescues at a lithium-ion battery fire that erupted in Harlem on Feb. 23, 2024. The Peter J. Ganci Jr. Award, named for the chief of department who was one of the 343 firefighters who perished on 9/11, went to firefighter Michael Kotzo from Ladder Co. 28, who was involved in two of the roof rescues. Five others were also honored for their role in the deadly fire, which claimed the life of 28-year-old journalist Fazil Khan and injured 20 others. The exploding lithium-ion battery on the third floor sent choking thick black smoke throughout the building blocking escape routes on the floors above, and three panicked residents were taken by rope outside the six-story building.
In addition to Kotzo, Battalion Chief Ryan C. Brito, Ladder Co. 34 (Henry D. Brookman Medal) and four other firefighters were honored for their lifesaving work in the fire, including Matthew Nolan, Squad Company 41 (Hugh Bonner Medal and Honor Legion Medal); Jason Lopez, Ladder Co. 28 (BC Thomas J. Neary Bronx/Harlem Firefighter Medal); Thomas C. Heedles, Ladder Co. 148 (Susan Wagner Medal); Duane L. Davis, Rescue Co. 3. (Columbia Association Medal).
The festive June 4 celebrations were shattered last year when an intoxicated driver in a pickup truck crashed through a fence in Corlears Hook Park and into bleachers adjacent to a ball field. Four people were pinned underneath the truck and the twisted bleachers. First responders had to deploy air bags and heavy-duty jacks to pull the victims to safety. That earned the World Trade Center Memorial Medal for six members of Ladder Co. 18, including Captain Bryan M. Scimeme, D-1 firefighter (now Lieutenant) Kevin C. Alore Jr., and Firefighters Michael L. Morano, Justin C. Rodriguez, Dominic J. Torre, and Nicholas P. Willoughby.
Also honored for responding to other Manhattan emergencies: Lieutenant Justin H. Kinney, EMS Special Operations; Firefighter Kevin C. Routledge, Ladder Company 18; Firefighter Marc J. Douglas, Ladder Company 45; EMT Ethan Y. Lu and Firefighter John M. Perez, Station 13; Firefighter Kevin T. Purdy, Ladder Company 46; Paramedic Franklin Kupferberg, Station 4.
The city’s ocean beaches, which attract a fair number of Manhattanites looking to beat the heat, can also be a source of unseen dangers. In the Atlantic Ocean off of Coney Island on July 6, 2024, EMTs Amber Black and Mitchell Tarnapolsky, both from Station 43, rescued two teens who were reported drowning off the shores by West 23rd Street and the Coney Island Boardwalk. The EMTs who led the rescue efforts received the Christopher J. Prescott Medal.
The day after the Coney Island rescue, EMT’s Saverio J. Bosco Jr. and Andrew Ochtera, both from Station 47, responded to an incident on Beach 97 in Far Rockaway, when numerous swimmers were caught in a riptide and were in danger of being pushed onto a rock jetty. One of the victims once brought onto the jetty was too weak to climb up the slippery rocks. She was secured on a backboard and lifted to safety by Ochtera and several others. Bosco was coordinating all the rescue efforts which involved a drone and securing a second victim on the opposite side of the jetty and hoisting her to safety on a backboard. Bosco and Ochtera were awarded the Yadira Arroyo Medal.
The official FDNY Medal Day Book detailing all 50 awards and their awardees is 76 perfect-bound pages—that’s a lot of reading! But New York City has a lot to be grateful for with these men and women on the job. The city also posted the complete book online.