Remembering Paul Brady, 10 years later

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Every year on the anniversary of the passing of Paul Brady, a Malverne firefighter who died in the Malverne firehouse in 2006, members of the Fire Department honor him, his loyalty, humor and devotion to the department through a series of rituals.

At 10 a.m. on July 30, they will arrive in full uniform at the Locust Valley Cemetery to attend a ceremony at his grave given by a priest. Members of Brady’s family attend each year as well. After several people have said a few words, another ritual follows. “We have a beer with him,” his widow, Lisa Brady, said. “We literally pour a beer into the ground in front of his grave and leave the beer bottle there while we discuss memories of him. He used to make beer, so this is meaningful.”

Afterward, all the visitors will return to the firehouse, where they change into street clothes and host a barbecue in his honor.

Lisa, who has kept in touch with the department through the years following Paul’s death, said she wants to make sure the young people just entering the Fire Deparment hear good stories about her husband and understand the wonderful person he was. “I just want everyone to know that he was a very special man and want them to be aware of his accident,” she said. I don’t want anything to happen to any of them —it’s so important that they stay safe. That’s just paramount.”

Paul died on July 30, 2006 — while doing routine maintenance on top of a fire truck. While he was working, another member got in the truck and drove it out of the building without realizing Paul was on top. He was trapped in a 5-inch clearance between the truck and a ceiling beam, and crushed. He died later that day at Nassau University Medical Center.

Lisa said she stays involved with the Fire Department in many ways, including through the Paul Ryan Brady Scholarship Fund, which was established around 2007, and is awarded to someone who does good deeds for the community or the people in it. “What the scholarship is about is that people help people,” said Lisa, who added that her husband was always helping people, and it is a wonderful way to honor him. The scholarship fund raises money through donations and the selling of T-shirts that have shamrocks on them with Paul’s firefighter number — 609. “He loved that number because it was the same upside down and backwards,” said Lisa. The scholarship gives out between $500 and $1,000 a year to at least one but no more than three individuals — depending on funds raised.

“It gives me happiness in my heart to know that good things are being done in his name,” Lisa said, adding that she visits the grave often to decorate it for his birthday, and other holidays with a very tacky theme. “We want it to be tacky because it’s in line with what Paul would’ve wanted. He was a jokester, silly, funny, and we want to remember all the fun parts about him.”

For years, the Malverne Fire Department and many fire organizations and local government officials lobbied relentlessly to have Brady’s name added to the New York State Fallen Firefighters Memorial, a wall in Albany dedicated to firefighters who were killed in the line of duty. Many on the memorial’s committee, however, didn’t believe his death met the definition of a “line of duty” death, and the addition of his name was delayed for years. After five appeals, a rally, a lawsuit and, finally, legislation, they were victorious in 2011, and Paul’s name was added to the wall.