Fire Department of New York (FDNY) Chief of Department Thomas J. Richardson has retired after 41 years on the job. FDNY brass and city officials joined firefighters and the chief’s friends for a walkout ceremony on Wednesday, January 12, 2022.
The last response of his career was among the most tragic, according to a report. Chief of Department Richardson responded Sunday, January 9, 2022, to a five-alarm high-rise fire in the Bronx that left 17 people dead, including eight children, with numerous other victims badly injured. FDNY crews made many rescues during the fire at a 19-story building at E. 181st St. near Tiebout Ave. in the Fordham Heights section of the borough.
Newsday spoke with Chief of Department Richardson about the fire and his career in the fire service.
“It was a scene that many of the chiefs said they never saw before in their career,” Chief of Department Richardson told reporters. “People out in front of the building doing CPR on maybe 20 people at a time. It was surreal.”
Chief of Department Richardson, 62, joined the department at the age of 21 and has received citations for bravery multiple times over the course of his career, which also involved service at Ground Zero in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks on New York City.
His first assignment was at Engine Company 227 in Brooklyn, and he later worked at Ladder Company 102 and Rescue Company 2. In 1990, he was promoted to lieutenant and worked in Battalion 16 in Harlem for a year before returning to Brooklyn, where he was assigned to Engine Company 235 in Bedford Stuyvesant. He was promoted again in 1994 and served as the captain of Engine Company 234 in Crown Heights and later of Squad Company 270 in Queens. In September of 2000, he was promoted to battalion chief.
An investigation is ongoing into the aforementioned Bronx fire, however officials said a space heater was to blame, with safety doors failing to close during the incident. The open door reportedly allowed smoke to spread unimpeded to upper floors of the building.
The Bronx catastrophe has been deemed the worst fire tragedy in the city in decades, the deadliest since the 1990 Happy Land Social Club fire. This major loss-of-life fire came hard on the heels of another fire tragedy on the East Coast: an apartment fire on Wednesday, January 5, 2022, in Philadelphia that killed 12 people.
The fire in Philadelphia was attributed to a Christmas tree that was lit on fire, according to a preliminary report from the city.
