FDNY LT RICHARD NAPPI E 237 LODD 4/16/2012

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FDNY Fire Service Line of Duty Death​



April 16, 2012 - LODD
Lieutenant Richard Nappi, 47
Engine 237
Fire Department, City of New York


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Lieutenant Nappi suffered an apparent heart attack while battling a three-alarm fire in Bushwick, Brooklyn. According to FDNY, Lt. Nappi led a team of firefighters who stretched and operated a hoseline in a mezzanine area of the first floor. While battling the fire, Lt. Nappi became overheated and collapsed. Firefighters from Ladder 112 removed him on a stretcher to the street where he initially was conscious and alert. He was placed in an ambulance and EMS personnel began to treat him when he suddenly became unconscious and suffered cardiac arrest. While paramedics and EMTs continued to work on him, he was rushed by ambulance to Woodhull Hospital where he later died.


RIP. Never forget.
 
A FDNY 9/11 hero died battling a three-alarm blaze that ripped through a Brooklyn warehouse Monday, the first city firefighter to perish in the line of duty since 2009.

Lt. Richard Nappi, 47, of Engine 237, was leading his crew's efforts inside the box-crammed Bushwick building when he became overheated, suffered exhaustion, collapsed and then went into cardiac arrest, officials said.

"He was a great kid. He was so wonderful, always happy, always good," Nappi's heartbroken mother, Regina Hickey, 73, told the Daily News when reached at her North Carolina home.

"I really got lucky to be his mother," she said, sobbing.

Hickey said her son always wanted to be a firefighter, even volunteering on Long Island when he was 18.

"He was the kind of kid who would be the first one in," she said.

On a summer-hot spring day, Nappi, a 17-year FDNY veteran, was directing firefighters manning a hose line on the second floor of the Flushing Ave. warehouse when he complained of dizziness and collapsed, Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano said.

Nappi was pulled from the inferno by members of Ladder Co. 112 and went into cardiac arrest as he was being taken to Woodhull Hospital, where he died.

"He was an extraordinary firefighter and an extraordinary officer. He was a leader that people followed," Cassano said.

"Outside of his family, his life's work was keeping New Yorkers safe from fires, and by any measure he succeeded magnificently," said Bloomberg, speaking at a press conference at the hospital.

The deadly blaze, which left five other firefighters with nonlife-threatening injuries, broke out at 1 p.m. on the second floor of the two-story warehouse at 930 Flushing Ave. A pile of cardboard ignited in a space leased by an import company, officials said.

As word spread through the ranks that Nappi didn't pull through, fellow firefighters were left reeling by the passing of a lieutenant who showed his valor time and again.

Those who knew him remembered his actions on 9/11, when he rushed from his Suffolk County home on his day off and joined his fellow Bravest in the effort to evacuate the World Trade Center.

Bloomberg said Nappi also moonlighted as a deputy chief instructor at the Suffolk County Fire Academy, teaching a new generation of firefighters the tricks of the trade.

Those close to Nappi in the Fire Department said he was a huge Bruce Springsteen fan and had a heart of gold. In 2007, he shaved his head to show support for the St. Baldrick's Foundation for children with cancer.

"He was a comedian and a warm-hearted person," said a fellow Brooklyn firefighter who last worked with Nappi a year ago.

Prior to joining the FDNY, Nappi was a parole officer for the New York State Division of Parole, and also worked for several years as a caseworker for Suffolk's Department of Social Services. He was a graduate of Iona College, where he received a B.A. in criminal justice in 1984.

"It's tragic," said one neighbor. "He was a great guy."

The five other firefighters injured in Monday's blaze were treated at Kings County Hospital, and all were eventually released, officials said.

It took more than 120 firefighters about three hours to extinguish the fire in the old warehouse.

The city's Office of Emergency Management also leases storage space in the building, officials said, but the fire was not in its section.

The last firefighter to die in the line of duty was Paul Warhola, 47, who suffered a stroke while responding to a fire alarm in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in August 2009.

The last firefighter to die battling a blaze was Lieut Robert J. Ryan Jr, killed in November 2008 while fighting a Staten Island house fire.

"It's a very tragic day for New York City," the mayor said. "Somebody who devoted his life to keeping us safe is no longer with us."
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A New York City fire lieutenant who died fighting a blaze was remembered Saturday at his funeral as a big, playful man who lived for his wife and two children and saw his service with the Fire Department as far more than a vocation.

Lt. Richard Nappi collapsed Monday as his engine company attacked a hot, smoky fire at a Brooklyn warehouse. Authorities think he suffered heat exhaustion and a heart attack.

Around 400 mourners filled a church in Lake Ronkonkoma on Long Island to memorialize the fallen 47-year-old.

Delivering the eulogy, Mayor Michael Bloomberg compared Nappi to the bulldog mascot at his Brooklyn firehouse, saying they both had "a stocky, powerful build, a playful, outgoing personality, and a tough, bulldog determination."

"He never lost his taste for firehouse pranks," Bloomberg said. But on the job, he added, "he was also all-business." Nappi began his career as an 18-year-old volunteer in the Smithtown Fire Department, and in recent years served as an instructor at Suffolk County's fire academy.

Hundreds of firefighters lined up, shoulder-to-shoulder, outside the Church of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, and stood at attention as Nappi's casket was carried into the chapel. It was draped with a Fire Department flag.

There were more mourners than could fit inside the church.

"He was so good to my kids, his kids, his wife. My heart just aches for her," said Joan McGeever, one of Nappi's neighbors in Farmingdale. "He was too young. But if there was any way to go, it would be in the line of duty. He gave his life for the Fire Department — lived and breathed it."

A scholarship fund has been set up for Nappi's two children at the request of Engine 237. Donations may be made to:

FDNY Foundation
Lieutenant Richard A. Nappi Children's Education Fund
9 Metrotech Center
Brooklyn, NY 11201

All donations are tax deductible and 100 percent of all donations will go the fund, FDNY press officials said.
 
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FDNY Firefighter Killed During 3-Alarm Warehouse Fire​

April 17, 2012
FDNY Lt. Richard Nappi complained of dizziness and getting overheated.
Source Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
https://nycfire.net/forums/javascript:void(0)

Fire Department City of New York

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Thousands of firefighters from the city and beyond are expected on Long Island Thursday through the weekend for the wake and funeral of FDNY Lt. Richard Nappi, who collapsed and died after battling a three-alarm blaze in a Brooklyn warehouse.

FDNY officials said the wake for Nappi, 47, will take place Thursday and Friday at Maloney's Funeral Home at 132 Ronkonkoma Ave., Lake Ronkonkoma. A funeral Mass will take place Saturday, 10:30 a.m., at The Church of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, 800 Portion Road, Lake Ronkonkoma. Times for the wake are both days from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m.

Nappi was registered as an organ donor and the family was abiding by his wishes, officials said.

A spokesman for the FDNY said at about 6,000 firefighters from around the country, the city and Long Island are expected. It was the first FDNY line-of-duty death since 2009.

Nappi complained of dizziness and being overheated after leading a team of firefighters with a hose line into a burning building at 930 Flushing Ave. He was rushed to Woodhull Hospital but died from what city officials said was an apparent heart attack.

Medical experts are awaiting results of tissue and toxicology tests to determine the exact cause of death. The FDNY requires firefighters to have a physical once a year. Nappi passed his last physical in September 2011, officials said.

Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner, said the cause of death was listed as "pending." Borakove said toxicology tests would determine if carbon monoxide was present in Nappi's body. Tissue samples were taken to see if any medical conditions such as a heart problem played a role, she added.

At Engine Co. 237 in Brooklyn , Nappi's unit, his colleagues hung purple and black bunting and held a silent formation for their fallen member.

"We will get through the next couple of days as a unit, a family," Capt. James Hurley told reporters.

At Nappi's home in Farmingville, which he shared with his wife, Mary Anne, and the couple's two children,
Catherine, 12, and Nicholas, 11, a steady stream of visitors arrived at the white colonial-style house. One woman brought a large gift basket with a green bow; another carried a pizza box. Later in the afternoon, a man carried on a hanger a dark uniform with an FDNY patch on the sleeve.

Marie Merkle, a neighbor, said Nappi, who was a volunteer at the Farmingville Fire Department, was a "good, caring man." Merkle recalled that when an elderly neighborhood woman had breathing problems after a hospital stay, Nappi came to help her.

"He flew over there and he took care of her until the ambulance came," said Merkle, 70. "He was very caring. He took care of us -- the senior citizens on the block. He was just a good, caring man."

McClatchy-Tribune News Service


 
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Emotional Tribute to Fallen Hero​

Farmingville's Lt. Richard Nappi officially has bridge overpass named in his honor.​


Matthew McGevna​

Posted Sat, Oct 13, 2012 at 4:58 pm ET

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Earlier today, elected officials, members of the Farmingville Fire Department and the family of Lieutenant Richard Nappi gathered at the Farmingville Fire House to officially dedicate the LIE overpass of North Ocean Avenue in his honor.

Speakers at the unveiling included State Sen. Lee Zeldin, State Assemblyman Dean Murray and Lt. Nappi's surviving brother Bob Nappi, who tearfully spoke about his brother's dedication to his family. Patch will have comments from the ceremony and more photos later in the weekend.

patch.com

Emotional Tribute to Fallen Hero

Farmingville's Lt. Richard Nappi officially has bridge overpass named in his honor.
patch.com patch.com
 

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