12 honored, added to state Firefighters Memorial
Published: Tuesday, October 6, 2009
By DANIELE SANZONE
For The Saratogian
ALBANY – As three billowing large American flags hung from ladder fire trucks in the Empire State Plaza, 12 more names were added to the New York State Fallen Firefighters Memorial.
Five of the fallen heroes died last year while the rest died in the line of duty between 1877 and 2006. They hailed from around the state including the fire departments of Endicott, Cazenovia, Moravia, Levittown, New York City, Hoosick Falls, and Cohoes.
Cohoes Fire Chief Joseph Fahd accepted a folded and encased state flag in honor of Firefighter Charles Walker who died in 1877 while fighting a fire on Mohawk Street. According to records, Walker had been told there was someone trapped inside the burning building so he went into the building and ended up being trapped when the roof of the house collapsed.
The Cohoes Fire Department, which traces back to 1848, was unable to locate any living family members of Walker. The flag and a plaque will be hung at the city’s Ray Lamora Fire House on Van Schaick Island, said Fahd, who applied with the state to have Walker recognized on the wall which now features 2,348 names. Three of those names were men from Cohoes.
“It’s quite an honor,” Fahd added.
One of the men honored at today’s ceremony who died in 2008 was Firefighter David Meron of the Hoosick Falls Fire Department.
“This is how he should be remembered. He was honored the right way. He was a lifelong firefighter,” said his daughter Ashley Bisson.
Meron’s wife, Linda, accepted the flag for the family. She said he had more than 30 years as a fire fighter with fire companies in Raymertown, Pittstown, and Hoosick Falls.
He had been a firefighter since the age of 14, said Bisson.
Meron, 58, was the first man in Hoosick Falls’ department to die in the line of duty. The night he died, July 20, 2008, he had responded to a call of a possible transformer malfunction and went back to the fire house to fill out paperwork. He was found in his car at the entrance of the fire station’s parking lot. He died of a stress-related heart attack.
“That’s when we found him,” said a teary-eyed Ted Senecal Jr., past Hoosick Falls fire chief.
The ceremony included the Albany Fire Department color guard, live music from a band and bagpiper, and a helicopter flew overhead at the end from the State Police’s Aviation Unit.
Along with area and state dignitaries, more than 200 firefighters from around the state attended today’s event.
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