Biographical Info
Age: 43
Additional Info: Volunteer firefighter Michael Greene lived in Babylon with his wife and four children; a son, 14; and three daughters, ages 12, 10 and 4, firefighters said.
Incident Details
Cause of Death: Greene was removing a tarpaulin from the wooden awning above a restaurant when he apparently electrocuted.
Date of Incident: June 16, 2006
West Babylon Firefighter Dies Removing Tarp
The Associated Press
LINDENHURST, New York — A volunteer firefighter who was decorated for his bravery died on duty after apparently being electrocuted and falling off a rooftop, his fire chief said on Saturday.
Firefighter Michael Greene, 43, died Friday evening while removing a tarp left on the roof of a Lindenhurst restaurant from a fire on Tuesday, said Vincent Senzamici, chief of the West Babylon fire department where Greene was named firefighter of the year for 2005.
A truck driver, Greene leaves four children, ages four to 14, Senzamici said.
“He was a great guy,” the fire chief said.
Greene, who had been with the department since March 1994, was to be honored in September at the Suffolk County Fire Academy with a silver medal of valor for a rescue he and two other firefighters made at a house in Babylon. As flames spread through the residential building, the three climbed to the second floor and brought out a woman who later died, Senzamici said.
On Friday evening, Greene was on the single-story roof of Long Island Cheeseburger on Montauk Highway when he came in contact with some electrical wires attached to the restaurant sign, the chief said.
“He was removing the tarp when he came in contact with the lives wires,” Senzamici said.
Witnesses said the firefighter’s body never hit the ground, but was hanging halfway through an overhang.
Greene was taken inside the restaurant by fellow firefighters who performed CPR on him, police said. He was then taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, where he was pronounced dead.
Suffolk Homicide Detective Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick said the county medical examiner will officially determine the cause of death.
Funeral arrangements were still being made Saturday.