Firefighters Remember Fallen Hero at Ceremony
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Story and photos by Ron Jeffers
Standing in front of 411 Palisade Avenue in Jersey City, New Jersey, on the afternoon of March 20, 2017, Chief of Department Steven Mc Gill said, “Carlos Negron will never be forgotten by the Jersey City Fire Department.”
Twenty-four years earlier, Firefighter Negron gave his life while assisting fellow firefighters that were operating at a fire in the three-story dwelling. Firefighters, members of the Gong Club, and Negron’s family participated in the brief ceremony.
Negron, who lived a block away from the fire scene, was picking up groceries at a local store when he heard shouts of “fire.” He ran to the scene to assist. First-alarm companies stretched hoselines and began to set up ground ladders against the building. Due to overhead power lines, aerial ladders from the trucks could not be used. Members of Truck 7 were setting up an extension ladder on slippery snow, along the narrow sidewalk, to reach the third-floor when that ladder brushed against an overhead high voltage line. Firefighters Negron and Walter Milne were knocked unconscious by the electric shock. The incident commander, Deputy Chief Denis Onieal, who now serves as the deputy fire administrator of the U.S. Fire Administration, transmitted second and third alarms and ordered BLS and ALS units to the scene. The injured members were transported to nearby Christ Hospital. Firefighter Milne was revived and spent some 60 days in St. Barnabas Burn Center in Livingston, New Jersey. He later returned to duty. Firefighter Negron could not be revived and died from his injuries.
Carlos Negron and his brother Frank were young children when the lived in an apartment house next door to the Gong Club’s firehouse (this is an organization of fire buffs that operate a canteen truck that responds to multiple-alarm fires in Hudson County.) They both hung out at the club, where they developed an interest in the fire service. When they got older, both joined that organization and were later appointed to the Jersey City Fire Department–a proud day in both of their lives.
On the 24th anniversary of Negron’s death, Chief Mc Gill and Battalion Chief Richard Gorman set up a memorial in front of the building where the hero firefighter died in the line of duty. A wreath was placed at the front of the structure as Chief Mc Gill and FDJC Chaplain, Reverend James Pagnotta, spoke of Carlos, who was a personal friend to both. Negron’s son, Carlos Jr., a Jersey City Medical Center EMT, and his daughter Susan Ann, a Hoboken police dispatcher, were on hand. Both have followed in their father’s footsteps working in public safety fields. Susan gave an emotional speech about her father. She remembers that morning when Carlos said he was going to the store. She said, “I love you daddy.” She added that the fire department and Gong Club became family.
The wreath was then marched to the corner street sign at Palisade Avenue and Hutton Street, which is also known as Carlos Negron Place, where firefighters offered Carlos a salute. The wreath was then transported to the Palisade Avenue firehouse, several blocks away, which is also named after Negron, and placed next to his memorial plaque in the hallway.
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