FDNY Medal Day 2016

James E. Leonard
Chief of Department
Medal Day provides us an opportunity to honor the great work of our uniformed members who confronted dangerous and
difficult circumstances during 2015, very often when the lives of New Yorkers were at risk. In each and every situation,
our members met the challenge head-on with a calm professionalism that is the hallmark of our Department.
Case in point: the East Village gas explosion on March 26, 2015, was one of the most challenging incidents the FDNY has
responded to in recent years. Department members worked valiantly to conduct initial primary searches for trapped occupants in
several affected buildings after the initial explosion and subsequent rapidly spreading fire. Three firefighters – including off-duty
Firefighter Michael J. Shepherd of Squad 41 - are receiving medals for their individual efforts, and 10 fire companies were
awarded unit citations for their outstanding work at this seven-alarm fire/collapse.
Exceptional teamwork was again on display at a building collapse on West 38th Street in Manhattan last October, when firefighters
and EMS personnel did an incredible job working under extremely dangerous conditions for more than three hours to
extricate a construction worker buried in debris. Eight of our members – three members of Rescue 1 and five EMS members,
including a medical doctor and two rescue medics - are being awarded individual medals for helping save the worker’s life. In
addition, all members of Rescue 1 working at that incident will receive a unit recognition award, the Firefighter Thomas R. Elsasser
Memorial Medal.
Numerous other firefighters, officers and EMS members are being honored for individual acts of bravery, including Lieutenant
Brian J. Colleluori of Ladder 174, recipient of the James Gordon Bennett Medal, who rescued a man in a multiple dwelling fire
in Brooklyn last February.
Ten firefighters and EMS members are being honored for performing lifesaving water rescues, including Paramedics Marilyn
Arroyo and Jimmy Guailacela, recipients of the inaugural Lillo-Quinn Medal named for our EMS heroes who perished on 9/11.
The Lillo-Quinn Medal will be presented every three years.
And we commend the excellent investigatory work of two fire marshals, James Egan and Andre Ramos, for their multi-layered
investigation of a four-alarm fire last March that resulted in the swift arrest, indictment and conviction of a dangerous arsonist
in Queens.
Each and every one of our Medal Day recipients acted in the very best traditions of this Department – carrying out their duties
while meeting and even exceeding the high standards set by so many FDNY members who have come before.
Your efforts have made everyone in the Department proud and reflect the tradition of selfless dedication we all share in protecting
and serving the people of our great city.
Fire Department, City of New York • Medal Day 2016
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