Official: FDNY's Tolley May Have Been Jolted from Bucket

April 24-- FDNY investigators are probing whether city firefighter William Tolley was jolted from a raised fire truck bucket before falling five stories to his death.

Newsday reports that Tolley, 42, was either getting inside the bucket or had just gotten inside when the accident occurred while he was helping contain an apartment fire in Queens on Thursday, the official said after being briefed on the preliminary findings of the investigation.

Tolley, a resident of Bethpage on Long Island who was a 14-year veteran of the FDNY, was not yet harnessed, according to the official.

"He hadn’t had an opportunity to do that yet," the official said, speaking to Newsday on condition of anonymity.

A second official who asked not to be identified said there appeared to be contact between the bucket and the concrete edge of the roof.

"There's some scraping" on the edge, the second official said. The bucket "scraped away a little bit of the concrete."

The FDNY is conducting two investigations: one, by the marshal, into the fire itself, and another by the FDNY’s Safety Command, which probes all line-of-duty deaths and serious injuries of firefighters, FDNY spokesman Jim Long said Friday.

The command will examine the mechanics, the apparatus, and training, and issue a report at some point, Long said. The NYPD is assisting but is not the lead agency because there does not appear to be any criminality involved, Long said.

The blaze in Ridgewood began after residents lit incense for religious purposes and left it burning unattended, the FDNY said Friday. Tolley had been assigned to the roof as the outside ventilation firefighter. 

Tolley, who left behind a wife and eight-year-old daughter, will be honored with a funeral mass on Thursday.

He was also a musician who played drums in a heavy metal band. His bandmates released their latest single over the weekend and dedicated it to their beloved friend, according to the Daily News.