FDNY Fire Service Line of Duty Death
March 28, 1971 - LODD
Captain John P. Dunne, 40
Ladder 175
FDNY. Brooklyn, New York
Captain Dunne was burned to death when he was caught in a flashover as he attempted to rescue trapped occupants in a three-alarm tenement fire. Tenants saved four children when they threw a mattress out of a window and dropped the children on top of it.
The New York Times Archives
FIRE CAPTAIN GETS A HERO'S FUNERAL
By Deirdre Carmody
April 1, 1971
Two thousand uniformed firemen, their white‐gloved hands raised in salute, lined a quiet street in Queens yester day to pay tribute to Capt. John F. Dunne, who died Sunday in a futile rescue attempt in a blazing building.
Captain Dunne had entered flaming apartment to look for four children who, he did not realize, had already been rescued.
The funeral procession began after a Mass of Resurrection in St. Kevin's Roman Cath olic Church at 194th Street and 45th Avenue, Flushing. The flag‐draped bronze coffin was carried slowly down the steps of the church on the shoulders of six firemen who had fought the fatal blaze.
As Mayor Lindsay, Fire Com missioner Robert 0. Lowery and rows of firemen stood at attention, the coffin was placed atop a fire pumper.
At the top of the church steps stood Captain Dunne's widow, Ann, who is expecting her second child in August. She stood very straight, her face composed and her eyes fixed on the coffin, then walked unaided down the steps with members of her family to a waiting limousine.
Procession on Foot
The procession, led by the Mayor and the Fire Commis sioner, proceeded slowly on foot through the neighborhood, where the 40‐year‐old fire captain lived with his wife and year‐old daughter.
Firemen who lined the way fell into step as the procession went by. Men stood on the side walk, hats over their hearts, and women and children stood on the porches of the neat, brick houses, watching the silent cortege pass by.
The procession passed down 45th Avenue and turned right for two blocks on Francis Lewis Boulevard as a muffled bell tolled from a fire pumper. The coffin was then removed to a hearse and taken to Long Island National Cemetery in Pinelawn for burial.
Earlier all the pews in the church were filled and the aisles were crammed with blue coated firemen, most of whom were off‐duty. The mass was concelebrated by five priests, including the Rev. John Sulli van, a cousin of Mrs. Dunne's, and the Rev. Frank Stroud, boyhood friend of Captain Dunne.
A Korean War Veteran
Captain Dunne, a Korean War veteran, who has been recommended for the Fire Department's highest honor, joined the department in 1957. Recently he had worked in the office of the chief of department, but last year he asked to go back to active fire duty and was given command of Ladder 175, a new company in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.
Early Sunday, shortly after midnight, his company was called to a burning apartment house at 1090 Halsey Street. Captain Dunne, hearing that four children were trapped in side, raced up a fire‐escape into the building. Minutes later he radioed that he was “trapped on the third floor.”
The children, meanwhile, had been thrown to safety onto discarded mattresses in the rear of the building.
RIP. Never forget.
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