FDNY Firefighter Dies Following Cardiac Arrest at High-Rise Fire

FDNY firefighters are mourning the loss of a colleague who one said, "you really hoped was working when you were coming to work," after he went into cardiac arrest at a Brooklyn high-rise fire Saturday night.

Firefighter Patrick Brady, 42, was working on the roof of a six-story building at 9407 Kings Highway in Brooklyn when he suffered a cardiac arrest, FDNY Commissioner Robert S. Tucker said early Sunday.

Crews immediately treated Brady - assigned to Ladder 120 - and moved him to an ambulance where he was transported to Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center. He passed away after

Brady joined the FDNY in 2014 and was first assigned to Engine 227 in Brooklyn.

"When you think of New York City fireman, you always think of figures that are larger than life," FDNY Capt. Scott Coyne said Sunday morning outside the firehouse where he worked with Brady. "Pat Brady, he filled that whole two words and thought process. Probably about as best as anybody could. Both as a friend, to his family, to anybody who knows him off of work and those who worked with them here."

Coyne said he met Brady when he was detailed as a rookie to Ladder 120 when he was a lieutenant at that firehouse, which also houses Engine 231 and Battalion 44 on Watkins Street. 

"He came to do his 60-day detail, and you could tell there was something different about Pat," Coyne recalled. "You could see how well he filled up a room, even though he was one of the newest guys. He was coming here, meeting all new people. And then just his work ethic and everything else. I was also fortunate enough to then recruit him and transferred here to Watkins Street."

In 2022, Brady transferred to Ladder 120 in the Brownsville neighborhood.

"He did what you needed done before you even asked," said Coyne. "He took care of those who were now younger than him and knew it in the rank and file. And he was good when we went out the door to a lot of these buildings that are right around us here."

Coyne called Brady an "informal leader."

"Pat was the type of guy that you really hoped was working when you were coming to work," Lt. James Walker said Sunday morning. "You just wanted to see his name on the board, you wanted to see his car in the parking lot. And that was it, just know you were going to have a great night."

Walker, who works at Engine 231/Ladder 120 moved to Brady's hometown of Rockaway about the same time they started working together.

"Everybody knows Pat, he kind of took me under his wing," Walker said. "I hung out with Pat, and I got to meet the entire neighborhood."

"I've had the honor of privilege of knowing Pat, for the last 18 years. I had the privilege of working with him for the last three, four years here at Watkins Street," firefighter Jake Touhey said. "His love for this firehouse, for the members of this firehouse, only came second to the love for his wife, Kara."

Last week, paramedic Salih Abdur Rahman passed away after completing his shift at the FDNY Fire Academy.

Brady is the 1,163 FDNY member to die in the line-of-duty.