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FDNY firefighter dies in Brooklyn house fire

8 others injured; one person missing

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An FDNY firefighter was killed Sunday afternoon after becoming trapped in a house fire he and his fellow Bravest were working to put out in Brooklyn's Canarsie neighborhood, officials said. 

Firefighter Timothy Klein, 31, of Ladder Company 170, died when the home's second floor was engulfed by flames and a ceiling partially collapsed, officials said.

Klein, among about 100 firefighters who responded to a 3–alarm fire at 108-26 Avenue N, was a six-year veteran of the FDNY, whose father is a retired firefighter, Mayor Eric Adams and Acting FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said at Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center. Eight other firefighters were injured. One firefighter and his captain were transported to Staten Island University Hospital with burns, and one other firefighter was transported to Brookdale with injuries from the collapse. One person was reported missing. 

"I cannot describe the heartbreak of the FDNY today to have lost a member doing what our members do best, putting their lives on the line to save others," Kavanagh said at the hospital. 

The FDNY’s Acting Chief of Department, John Hodgens, said Klein was part of the nozzle team inside the home working to put out the fire. “Everything seemed to be going routine, when suddenly the entire second floor became engulfed in flames,” he said. 

Three firefighters were able to escape, either by jumping out of windows or by ladder, but Klein did not, Hodgens said. “Our members worked feverishly and very hard under very difficult conditions to try to reach him” but were unable to do so,” Hodgens said.  

“Timothy lost his life doing the job that we ask of him every day,” the mayor said.

Klein is Ladder Company 170’s second line-of-duty death in just over three years. Firefighter Steven Pollard, 30, was killed in January 2019 when, responding to a multi-car accident on the Mill Basin Bridge, just east of Flatbush, he fell through a hole in the roadway.

Klein was among those who eulogized Pollard, who was also a second-generation firefighter. 

Andrew Ansbro, the president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association called Klein “a hero” to his firefighter colleagues and to residents who “will be eternally remembered for making the ultimate sacrifice so that others may live.” 

“There are no words that aptly describe the loss of a fellow Firefighter in your company and this department, and the Klein family is now living the worst nightmare of every person who has ever sworn the sacred oath to the FDNY,” he said in a statement. 

Klein is the FDNY’s 1,157th member to die in the line-of-duty. The last member of the FDNY to die in the line of duty was Firefighter Jesse Gerhard, who died Feb. 16. The 33-year-old Ladder Company 134 firefighter died of an undetermined medical episode a day after fighting a two-alarm residential fire in Far Rockaway.

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