FDNY Fire Service Line of Duty Death
March 19, 1902 - LODD
Fireman Thomas J. Cooney
Engine (Marine) 223
FDNY. Brooklyn, New York
Firefighter Thomas J. Cooney drowned while operating at a fire aboard a steamer ship.
While loading for passengers in Hoboken, the ship British Queen caught fire. The fire spread to other ships, and the ships broke free from their berth. FF Cooney, Operating on Fireboat Seth Low, was operating on Governors Island, where one ship ended up. They were operating a hose line from a dock that was unfinished. FF Cooney lost his footing and fell into the river. No one noticed him missing for several minutes. The strong tides carried him away and he drowned.
Fireman Thomas J. Cooney of the fireboat Seth Low, Engine 123 (now Engine 223) was operating on an ice-covered dock on Governor’s Island in New York Harbor. The ship, British Queen, was loading for Holland at the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey. It is not known how the fire was started, but it spread to several other ships, oil barges and smaller vessels. Some of these ships, a burning mass, broke free and were floating south with the tide in the North River scorching piers along Manhattan’s waterfront. One ship landed on Governors Island and the Seth Low responded to this fire. The company was operating on a dock that was not finished yet and the men were handling a line of hose on the skeleton frame. Cooney slipped on the iced cover girders into the water and was not noticed missing for several minutes. The strong tides carried him away and he drowned. (From "The Last Alarm" by Boucher, Urbanowicz & Melahn, 2006)
RIP. Never forget.
