Teddy Abriel, who always looked out for others, leaves a legacy of generosity and courage
By Carol DeMare and Kate Perry
The Times Union (Albany, New York)
Copyright 2007 The Hearst Corporation
All Rights Reserved
ALBANY — Teddy Abriel, when not on duty, could be found at his embroidery machine making T-shirts and hats for fellow firefighters.
Firefighting ran so deep in Abriel’s blood that he was immersed in fashioning logos, patches and insignia.
The 44-year-old veteran, a member of the Albany Fire Department’s rescue squad, was remembered Tuesday, the day after he died in the line of duty. “You’d go and you’d order shirts from Teddy,” said Sam Fresina, president of the Albany Permanent Professional Firefighters Association. “It made him the official fire department embroidery person for New York state.”
Abriel collapsed and died at 2 Lincoln Square after climbing six floors of the residential high-rise in the South End at a one-alarm fire. He suffered a massive heart attack and was pronounced dead at 5:40 p.m. Monday at Albany Medical Center. Earlier, he battled a blaze on Garfield Place.
The Lincoln Square fire apparently started in the living room, and its cause is still under investigation, Fire Chief Robert C. Forezzi Sr. said Tuesday at a news conference. It doesn’t appear to be suspicious, he said.
Abriel, appointed Jan. 5, 1987, was an acting lieutenant and in line for a promotion, Forezzi said.
The rescue squad - the chief called it an elite unit and likened it to a police SWAT team - responds to every fire.
Its members look for trapped people. They also do water rescues and respond as the lead agency to hazardous materials incidents. Abriel transferred to the rescue squad on Jan. 8, 2005.
Forezzi, who took over the reins of the 260-member department in September, said Abriel was “truly one of Albany’s bravest.”
Getting a phone call that a firefighter is down is a chief’s worst nightmare, he said.
All firefighters will honor Abriel’s memory “by staying strong, acting professionally and by continuing to have passion, even in the face of tragedy,” he said.
“The entire city is grieving,” Mayor Jerry Jennings said. “Teddy will forever be in our memory and his work and service will not be forgotten.”
Rescue squad members, regardless of age, undergo physical examinations once a year. The union contract calls for it, and it includes an EKG, a lung capacity test and blood tests, Fresina said. Annual exams are mandatory for all firefighters 40 and over, re gardless of where they are assigned, he said.
For those between 30 and 40 it’s required every two years, and for those under 30 it’s required every three years, he said.
“But most guys get one every year regardless,” Fresina said.
It’s strenuous carrying around about 75 pounds - heavy clothing, an air pack on the back and firefighting tools, the union president said.
The only state requirement is the candidate physical ability test, known as CPAT, given as part of the entrance test for professional firefighters, Fresina said. The International Association of Firefighters and the International Association of Fire Chiefs created the fitness test and some states chose to use it, he said.
Fresina, assigned to Engine Company 2, which is quartered at the Arbor Hill firehouse along with the rescue squad, worked the same shift as Abriel and called him “extremely committed to the job.” Abriel was head of the department’s honor guard. He liked to cook and to experiment with dishes.
He came from a family whose firefighting history dates to 1867, when the department was organized as a professional fire department, so firefighting was his life.
Retired AFD Fire Capt. Henry Abriel remembered his brother fondly. Another brother, Warren Abriel Jr. is a deputy fire chief, and their father, the late Warren Abriel Sr., was a battalion chief.
Henry Abriel said his brother was the first Albany firefighter to volunteer to go to Manhattan after the 9/11 attack.
That’s how his brother was - first to respond and first to sacrifice, Henry Abriel said. In that way, his death was fitting, the brother said.
“He wouldn’t have had it go any other way,” he said. “He died with his boots on,” and was the first in the family to die on the job.
Abriel had worked his sideline from a shop in his garage at his Slingerlands home. After 9/11, he raised about $30,000 making and selling 9/11 commemorative shirts, Fresina said.
The money helped buy computers for 30 families who lost firefighters and supplemented the union’s fundraising to buy two Jeeps, which were delivered to New York families. In another charitable endeavor, Abriel sold shirts and donated money to a memorial fund after Albany Police Lt. John Finn was killed in the line of duty.
Rescue squad member Stephen McCauley was Abriel’s partner for 13 years at Engine Company 1 and had known him since Christian Brothers Academy, from which they graduated in the early 1980s.
On Tuesday at the Arbor Hill firehouse, McCauley wore a T-shirt embroidered with a fire association logo. The shirts were known as Teddy’s Tees, McCauley said.
Abriel was known as a joker, and as the one who threw the best holiday parties. But he also was the best kind of firefighter.
“If you think about the truest form of a firefighter, the kind that would lay down their life for you, that was him,” McCauley said.
Abriel was a great father to Christopher, 19, Matt, 17, Teddy Jr., 15, and Erin, 11, attending Pop Warner football games and school events, McCauley said.
McCauley and Abriel traveled to Giants Stadium several times a season to see Abriel’s favorite team play. The friend found it sobering to see the flag at half-staff on his way to work Tuesday morning, and even more so to see Abriel’s car in the lot when he got there.
Yet he caught himself saying later in the day that he needed to call Abriel to ask him a question.