By DEBORAH S. MORRIS and BILL MASON
Newsday (New York)
Copyright 2006 Newsday, Inc.
A West Babylon firefighter died Friday night after he fell from a restaurant roof in Lindenhurst where he was removing a tarp left there from a fire on Tuesday, officials said.
Firefighter Michael Greene, 43, of Babylon, was on the one-story roof of Long Island Cheeseburger on Montauk Highway at about 7:45 p.m. when the accident happened. The precise cause of his death was unclear Friday night.
Witnesses said that his body never hit the ground but was hanging halfway through an overhang, tangled with electrical wires.
A woman who works at the restaurant and did not give her name said she was there when the accident happened. She said the firefighters were there Friday night to remove the tarp, left there since the fire.
“We were inside and the next thing we hear was a thump. The other firemen were trying to get him up, push him up ... " the employee said before breaking down in tears.
Suffolk Homicide Det. Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick said, “There does seem to be some electrical irregularities in the facade of the building in the area [where the accident happened].”
Fitzpatrick declined to speculate as to whether the firefighter was electrocuted. He said the Suffolk County medical examiner will make the determination on the cause of death.
Police said he was taken inside the restaurant by fellow firefighters who performed CPR on him, before he was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, where he was pronounced dead.