STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Family, friends and the FDNY are mourning the death of a Staten Island firefighter who passed away while off-duty at the age of 41.
Firefighter John Patrick Morgan, of Port Richmond-based Ladder Co. 80, a 16-year veteran of the department, died on July 4, leaving behind a wife and two children.
A graduate of Monsignor Farrell High School, Morgan worked several jobs before entering the FDNY Fire Academy in 2007 at age 23, alongside his younger brother, Ryan, according to his obituary.
“It was a blessing,” Ryan Morgan said at the brothers’ graduation ceremony. “Just growing up where we grew up on Staten Island, that was definitely a profession a lot of people were in. I’m just excited to finally be going out on the job.”
John Morgan’s brothers and peers in the fire company said they considered him “solid as a rock,” and he was known as a senior man in the company over the last several years.
He was also known for being a “great firefighter and teacher” and “a giant of a man who kept people in line in a kind and direct way.”
It was said that whenever friends saw John Morgan at the scene of a fire or on an emergency they felt a sense of ease knowing that everything was going to work out.
In 2014, the late Morgan was hailed for his efforts alongside eight other firefighters in battling a blaze that gutted a C-Town supermarket, restaurant and church in Port Richmond.
A viewing is scheduled for Tuesday, July 11, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m, at Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home in Tottenville.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Wednesday, July 12, at Our Lady Star of the Sea R.C. Church in Huguenot at 11 a.m. Interment will follow at Resurrection Cemetery, Pleasant Plains.
In lieu of flowers, donations in support of Firefighter John Patrick Morgan can be made to The Firefighter John Patrick Morgan’s Children’s Scholarship Fund.
Donations can be mailed to The FDNY Foundation, 9 MetroTech Center, Room 5E-10…
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