NEW YORK — FDNY Lt. Richard A. Nappi, a 17-year veteran of the FDNY suffered an apparent heart attack while battling a three-alarm fire Monday afternoon in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. Lt. Nappi leaves behind a wife and two children, was 47 years old.
According to FDNY, Engine Company 237 responded to a fire in a two-story commercial building at 930 Flushing Ave. Arriving with several additional companies within three minutes, Lt. Nappi led a team of firefighters who stretched and operated a hoseline in a mezzanine area of the first floor.
While battling the fire, Lt. Nappi became overheated and collapsed. Firefighters from Ladder Company 112 removed him on a stretcher to the street where he initially was conscious and alert.
He was placed in an ambulance and EMS personnel began to treat him when he suddenly became unconscious and suffered cardiac arrest. While EMT’s and Paramedics continued to work on him, he was rushed by ambulance to Woodhull Hospital where he later died.
After his appointment to the FDNY on Oct. 23, 1994, then-Firefighter Nappi worked in Engine Company 7 on Duane Street in lower Manhattan. Although he was off-duty on Sept. 11, 2001, he responded from home that morning to the World Trade Center — which was several blocks from his firehouse. In 2003, he transferred to Engine Company 302 in Queens, and — after his promotion to lieutenant on Nov. 10, 2007, he was assigned to Engine 237.
He was a graduate of Iona College, where he received a BA in criminal justice in 1984.
In addition to his work as a member of FDNY, Lt. Nappi also served as a volunteer firefighter and deputy chief instructor with the Suffolk County Fire Academy in Yaphank, N.Y.
Lt. Nappi is the 1,142nd firefighter to die in the line of duty since the FDNY’s founding in 1865. The last member of the Department to die on the job was Firefighter Paul Warhola of Engine 221, on Aug. 14, 2009.