His legacy lives on.
A Long Island man who lost his heroic firefighter father in the Bronx fires 20 years ago became a smoke eater himself Friday, along with hundreds of other FDNY graduates.
Wantagh resident Dennis Meylan, 36, was inspired by his late father, Lt. Curtis Meylan, who jumped to his death to avoid being burned alive after handing a co-worker a hose during an apartment fire in January 2005. got a ration.
Maylan said “memories of my father” and a desire to “make him proud” got him through the most difficult parts of his 18-week stint at the FDNY training academy.
“I just wanted to follow in my dad’s footsteps, and I’ve wanted to be a firefighter ever since I can remember,” he said.
“[I have] Memories of going to the fire station as a kid and meeting everyone and seeing how much everyone loved him. Those are things I carry with me every day,” he said.
During the training, Meylan said, “I made a lot of good lifelong friends and brothers.''
“I'm happy to carry on that legacy,” said Meylan, whose father's side of the family is a line of firefighters.
“I'm very excited, I'm very excited. I want to help the city,” he said.
Maylan was one of 289 “Probee” firefighters who graduated in a ceremony at Queen's University on Friday and will soon be assigned to fire stations across the city.
On January 23, 2005, Meylan was still a teenager. When my father was summoned to the hell of 178th Street in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx.
The elderly Maylan, 46, was a 15-year veteran of the FDNY when he rushed to the fourth floor of the building to fight the fire.
According to media reports at the time, he and firefighter John Bellew received a false alarm that a hose on the lower level had ruptured and were ordered to hand over the hose to firefighters battling the main fire on the third floor.
As the flames approached, Maylan and Bellew made a desperate decision to jump 50 feet from the fourth floor. Both died from the fall.
The day was dubbed “Black Sunday” after another firefighter, Richard Sclafani, died in the Brooklyn fire.
At Friday's commencement ceremony, Dean John Esposito told graduates that courage is “fundamental” at the FDNY.
“Being a firefighter means rushing toward danger when others are retreating. It means you have taken an oath to put the lives of others before your own. “That determination, that courage, is what sets the FDNY apart from many other organizations,” he said.
“From now on, our courage will be your standard.”
FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker told the Post that the story of the young Maylan, who joined Bravest, is bittersweet.
“This is one of the sad but amazing things about this fire department. We have so many legacy members now in this job and it's really beautiful to see,” he said. I did.
