FDNY Line of Duty Death
January 30, 1908 - LODD
Fireman Matthew Miller, 40
Engine 249
FDNY. Brooklyn, New York
While returning to quarters from a two-alarm fire, Fireman Miller was killed when he fell from the driver's seat and his neck was run over by the steamer.
While returning from a two-alarm fire at 80 East 38th Street, Flatbush, Fireman Matthew Miller, forty years old of 1417 Bedford Avenue, driver of Engine 149 (now Engine 249), housed on Rogers Avenue near Midwood Street, was hurled from his seat, run over and killed instantly in an effort to get the engine out of a series of ruts in Canarsie Avenue, just off Snyder Avenue, where the street was in bad shape. The front wheel of the engine passed over Miller’s neck, breaking his spinal cord. The fireman fought the blaze from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. The other apparatus left and Miller, who was somewhat numb from the cold, mounted his engine and swung into Canarsie Avenue on the homeward trip. He had not driven beyond Snyder Avenue when the front wheels struck a particularly deep rut and the engine was stuck there. The three horses were unable to pull it out and Miller unstrapped himself and got down to help push the spokes of the wheel. The engine was finally lifted out of the rut in which it had stuck. Miller jumped to his seat and as the horses got a good start, he seized the reins and urged them on, not stopping to secure himself with the strap which engine drivers fasten around themselves to prevent just such an accident as happened to him. After bumping over the hollows and ridges for a few feet, the front wheels hit another very deep rut. Miller was hurled from his seat, descending headfirst directly behind the horses. Two firemen stood beside the front wheel of the engine and tried to catch Miller as he fell. It happened so suddenly that he landed on the ground with his neck directly in the path of the wheel. The horses were pulling hard, taking the suddenly loosened reins as a signal for even a greater effort before either of the firemen could get to their heads or pull Miller from his dangerous position. The horses drew the engine out of the rut and over Miller’s neck. (From "The Last Alarm" by Boucher, Urbanowicz & Melahn 2006)
RIP. Never forget.
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