Rally for Brady: Bill would add Malverne firefighter's name to memorial wall

Neither wind nor rain kept volunteer firefighters or local and state elected officials from rallying in Mineola last Sunday in support of a state bill that would gain recognition for fallen Malverne fireman Paul Brady.

The well-attended “Paul on the Wall” rally came one month after the New York State Fallen Firefighters Memorial Committee denied a fifth appeal by the Malverne Fire Department to inscribe Brady’s name on the Albany memorial wall dedicated to 2,300 firefighters killed in the line of duty.

Brady, 42, was accidentally crushed to death in the Malverne firehouse in July 2006 while doing routine maintenance on the roof of a rescue truck. A fellow volunteer firefighter, unaware that Brady was on top of the truck, drove it out of the building, trapping Brady in a 5-inch clearance between the truck and a ceiling beam. He suffered internal injuries and died later that day at Nassau University Medical Center.

While the state Worker’s Compensation Board, the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation all determined that Brady had died in the line of duty, the state committee said his death did not meet its criteria. The committee reiterated its stance on Aug. 9 by denying the Malverne department’s appeal once again, this time pushing some in the department past the brink of exasperation. In response, the department filed an Article 78 lawsuit against the committee.

“We are asking for the final act of recognition for the sacrifice which Paul Brady made and which his family and friends continue to make,” Malverne Mayor Patricia McDonald said at the rally. “All the members of the Fallen Firefighters Committee should resign tomorrow if they do not include Paul’s name among our honored fallen firefighters in the state of New York.”