Newsday
LEVITTOWN, NY — A longtime Levittown firefighter died Friday after suffering a heart attack while on duty, the department chief said Sunday.
Edward A. Junginger, 82, was helping reopen Hempstead Turnpike to traffic after an auto accident Tuesday afternoon when he collapsed. He was driving a car — driven to the scene by the mother of an accident victim — out of the way, Levittown fire department Chief George W. Anderson said.
Junginger was rushed to Nassau University Medical Center, where he was placed on life support. He was pronounced dead at about 5 p.m. Friday, Anderson said.
As a volunteer firefighter for 49 years, Junginger took his duties on the fire police squad seriously, his colleagues remembered. The squad consists of mostly older volunteers who keep order at accident scenes by redirecting traffic, said Levittown firefighter Ken Rochon.
“If you gave Ed a job to do, you knew it’d get done,” Rochon said. “It didn’t matter what time of day or night it was, he was there.”
So far this year, Junginger had responded to 125 alarms, Anderson said, a testament to a devotion that hasn’t wavered since he joined the department in 1959.
“He was a guy who never complained,” Anderson said. “Even if he didn’t like to do something, he just did it without question.”
Junginger was retired as a shoe salesman for Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. In retirement, he focused on the fire department’s residential fund drive, Anderson said.
“It kept him active,” Anderson said of Junginger’s sending letters to residents and knocking on doors, asking for donations.
When he wasn’t on duty, Junginger loved to golf. “If he wasn’t playing on a course, he was playing it on a computer,” Anderson said.
Junginger served in the Army during World War II, stationed in Italy from 1944 to 1946, Anderson said. Junginger was also a member of American Legion Post 1711.
Department volunteers looked up to Junginger, Anderson said, and are taking comfort in knowing that he collapsed while doing something he believed in.
“He was helping out till the end,” Anderson said.
Junginger is survived by his wife, Josephine, and three children: James Junginger, of Hooper, Neb., Jean Kopp, of Morris, N.Y., JoEllen Kelly of Keene, N.H., and Anne Bammann, of Lindenhurst.
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