NYC firefighter, 36, dies of heart attack after being fired to pay for migrants — leaving his family with nothing
NY Post
An FDNY firefighter has died of a heart attack just months after he was fired as part of the city’s effort to free up funds for its migrant crisis — leaving his grieving widow and kids struggling to keep a roof over their heads.
Derek Floyd, 36, suffered cardiac arrest and passed away April 15, four months after the city gave him the boot as part of a larger effort to pare staff and pay for housing and services for the tens of thousands of migrants flooding the Big Apple.
Floyd was one of about 10 fire department employees who had been on “long-term duty” — either injured on the job and given office work or out sick for an extended period — and fired weeks before Christmas, FDNY sources told The Post.
Floyd, a veteran who served three tours in the Middle East with the Marines, had been among those working a desk job — toiling in the fire department chaplain’s office — because he had suffered another heart attack in 2019 while he was in the Fire Academy.
In the chaplain’s office, the firefighter, who was on modified duty, helped arrange the funerals of fallen FDNY members.
The married dad of two young children was trying to become medically cleared to re-enter the firefighting force before he was fired.