What to Know
- Steven Pollard, 30, who had been with the FDNY for a year and a half, is the 1,151 member of department to die in the line of duty
- He died helping victims of a car crash on the Belt Parkway after he fell more than 50 feet off the Mill Basin overpass
- Pollard's funeral will be Friday at 11:30 a.m. at Good Shepherd Church in Brooklyn
Wake and funeral arrangements for a 30-year-old FDNY firefighter who died when he fell off a Brooklyn bridge while helping car crash victims have been set.
The wake for Steven Pollard, a probationary firefighter who came from a family of FDNY firefighters, will be held Wednesday from 7 to 9 p.m. and again on Thursday fom 2 to 4 p.m. at Marine Park Funeral Home on Quentin Road in Brooklyn. Pollard will be laid to rest Friday at 11:30 a.m. at Good Shepherd Church on Batchelder Street in Brooklyn.
Throngs of firefighters stood at emotional salute Monday as they watched an ambulance carry away Pollard's body who died the night before when he plunged 52 feet to the concrete below the Mill Basin overpass when he responded to an overturned wreck on the westbound Belt Parkway.
Pollard went to jump over a 3-foot gap in the road to get from the eastbound to the westbound lanes to help the crash victims but slipped through, officials said.
Pollard, who was assigned to Ladder Company 170 in Brooklyn, was pronounced dead at a hospital a short time later. Hours later, hundreds of FDNY personnel and vehicles lined highways and side streets for the procession from the medical examiner's office to a funeral home. Many bowed their heads in prayer; FDNY boats also spouted huge plumes of water, some colored blue, from the river.
Pollard had been on the job for a year and a half, and just finished probation; he's the 1,151st member of the FDNY to die in the line of duty.
Pollard’s father, Ray, is a retired FDNY firefighter who was on the job for 31 years for Ladder Company 102 in Brooklyn. His brother, Ray Jr., is currently an FDNY firefighter and has been for 11 years for Ladder Company 114. He is also survived by his mother.
The last time an FDNY firefighter was killed in the line of duty was last year when 15-year veteran Michael R. Davidson died battling a blaze at an Edward Norton film shoot in Harlem last March.
