By Thomas Tracy
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — The worst day of Probationary Firefighter Jerrell Nedd’s young life was on 9/11 when terrorists flew passenger jets into the World Trade Center, killing his father, a chef at Windows on the World restaurant atop the North Tower, and more than 2,700 others.
But something unique happened out of this tragedy — Nedd found a calling.
“The FDNY and my family, we shared the worst day in our histories,” Nedd said as he prepared to graduate from the FDNY Fire Academy on Wednesday. “I lost a dad, and they lost 343 other members. Yet they still ran into the buildings, trying to bring my dad home. I just wanted to be a part of that. I wanted to help people like they had.”
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Nedd was 9 when his father, Jerome Nedd, was killed. He spent most of his youth with the families of other 9/11 victims and, through it all, the FDNY was always there to lend a hand, he said.
“The FDNY stood by me,” he said. “I wanted to be a part of that brotherhood.”
Jerrell’s father came to the U.S. from Trinidad as a boy and was a track star at Tilden and Sheepshead Bay high schools. His family still lives in Brooklyn. He graduated from New York Restaurant School with a certificate in culinary arts in 1999. Within two years, he was a chef at the elite Windows on the World restaurant. He was 39 when he was killed.
As he waited to be called to the Fire Academy, Jerrell became an FDNY emergency medical technician. He graduated the EMS Academy just a few weeks before the 2020 pandemic gripped the city and New York went into lockdown.
The experience of being an EMS “street doctor” during one of the worst medical emergencies in the city’s history not only taught him how to handle stress under pressure, but it also taught him a great deal of humility — and made him love his calling even more.
“You learn a lot about yourself when you take care of someone on their worst day,” he remembered. “I was 26 years old, dealing with people having such a tough time, with family members passing and the struggles they were going through. It was a very humbling experience. When they call 911, you have to treat them with respect and humanity, and be a shining beacon of that all the time.”
His stint as an EMT, which ended as an instructor, will certainly help as a firefighter. Last week, Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said that two-thirds of all 911 calls to the FDNY are for medical emergencies.
Fire companies are expected to help out when EMS units get bogged down in the deluge, Bonsignore said.
“Everyone (in the FDNY ) is in the game on handling that,” she said.
Nedd is also following in his older brother’s footsteps. Jerome Nedd, his father’s namesake, became a firefighter in 2024.
“I almost didn’t make it because of the age restriction,” Jerrell Nedd, 33, said. “This is a dream come true. When I was really young I wanted to be a doctor. But now I’m helping people in a different way.”
Of the 181 Fire Academy graduates, 126 have either been department EMTs, paramedics or EMS officers, the department said. They were given the chance to become firefighters through a department promotional exam.
“I am proud to welcome this class of 181 probationary firefighters to New York’s Bravest, my first class as Fire commissioner,” Bonsignore said Tuesday. “Many of them began their journeys with the FDNY as EMTs and have already done the hard work of serving the public.”
“I am so proud of what they have already done, and what they are sure to do as firefighters: protect lives and property in our great city,” she said.
As he graduates with 180 other probies at Brooklyn’s Christian Cultural Center on Wednesday, Nedd’s brother, mother and grandmother will be cheering him on. He’ll also be remembering his father and the many trips they took together to Canada to go ice fishing.
He will also remember his father’s mastery in the kitchen and his famous curry goat recipe, which he hopes to make for his brothers at his new firehouse.
“But I want to have it down pat before I do it,” he said. “I don’t want to scare people away.”
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