LODDS

FDNY Firefighter Dies after Fall from Bridge

Jan. 7, 2019

Firefighter Steven Pollard with Ladder 170 was unable to clear the gap between two sides of a Belt Parkway bridge in Brooklyn when he fell and died.

By John Annese , Rikki Reyna and Thomas Tracy

Source New York Daily News

A city firefighter died after plummeting from a Belt Parkway bridge in Brooklyn on Sunday night, sources said.

Firefighter Steven Pollard, 30, who had 1½ years on the job, was responding to a two-car crash on the eastbound side of the Mill Basin Bridge at around 10:20 p.m.

One of the cars had flipped over, and one of the cars — it wasn’t clear which — contained two men who were seriously hurt, said FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro.

On his way to rescue the men, Pollard — a member of Canarsie-based Ladder 170 — tried to get from the westbound side of the highway to the accident scene in the eastbound lanes, said sources.

But he was unable to clear a gap between the two sides of the bridge, which was recently rebuilt.

“Firefighter Pollard slipped through the gap in the roadway and fell to the ground approximately 52 feet,” said Nigro.

Medics rushed Pollard to Kings County Hospital with a serious head injury, officials said. He was declared dead at the hospital.

Mayor de Blasio arrived at the hospital shortly after midnight, and spoke later at a news conference.

“It’s a very sad night here in our city," the mayor said. "This is particularly painful because we’ve lost a young man serving our city as a firefighter."

“He was trying to do such a good and important thing and it’s just really painful to see him as we did in the hospital room," the mayor said.

Nigro called Pollard’s death “a terrible loss for the department.”

“He was just at the beginning of his career,” Nigro said. “As his family mourns him, the department mourns him.”

Pollard comes from a firefighting family. His father, Ray Pollard, retired from the FDNY in 2016. His brother, Ray Pollard Jr., is currently with the department.

Ray Pollard Sr. made the news in 2008 when a new safety rope saved his life by allowing him to safely escape from the top floor of a burning house in Brooklyn.

The last firefighter death in the city was March 22, when firefighter Michael Davidson of Manhattan Engine 69 died battling a blaze in Harlem on the site of a movie shoot by Hollywood actor Ed Norton’s company.

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