Hundreds of firefighters, elected officials, neighbors, friends and family gathered at Beach 129th Street and Newport Avenue on Wednesday, Aug. 23, for a street co-naming ceremony to honor the life and legacy of the late FDNY Firefighter Timothy Klein.
Photo by John Schilling
Hundreds of firefighters, elected officials, neighbors, friends and family gathered at Beach 129th Street and Newport Avenue in the Belle Harbor section of the Rockaways on Wednesday, Aug. 23, for a street co-naming ceremony to honor the life and legacy of the late FDNY Firefighter Timothy Klein.
Klein, a 31-year-old who called Rockaway home, lost his life on April 24, 2022 in a three-alarm fire in Brooklyn. A six-year FDNY veteran for Engine 257/Ladder 170/Battalion 58, Klein dreamed of becoming a firefighter at a young age, hoping to follow in the footsteps of his father and uncles and willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.
“Today, we’re here to honor a hero not for how he left this world but for how he lived every day,” South Queens Councilwoman Joann Ariola said in opening remarks. “Timothy Klein was more than just a firefighter.”
Born in 1990, Klein grew up on Beach 137th Street and graduated from St. Francis De Sales School on Beach 129th Street before heading to Archbishop Molloy in Briarwood for his high school years. After graduating in 2008, Klein pursued a sports management degree at York College of Pennsylvania.
When not responding to fires, Klein spent time working with the Fight For Firefighters Foundation to help build wheelchair ramps for retired FDNY firefighters and veterans. In Rockaway, Klein remained a friendly face as a frequent patron of the neighborhood’s many local businesses and an active participant in the annual St. Francis Summer Classic Men’s Open Division basketball tournament, which was renamed after him last summer.
Since his passing, Klein’s memory has also lived on through the Timothy P. Klein Memorial Foundation, which hosts an…
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