Goodbye to Bravest
Boro lays fi refi ghter who fatally fell from Mill Basin Bridge to rest
FINAL FAREWELL: (Clockwise from above) Police Department choppers
soared above the motorcade as it made its way to Green-Wood Cemetery
with the remains of late fi refi ghter Steven Pollard, following his Marine
Park funeral service on Jan. 11. A fi refi ghter presented Pollard’s family
and girlfriend with the dead hero’s helmet. Members of New York’s Bravest
lined Batchelder Street near Avenue S to honor their fallen brother.
A fi re engine carried a fl oral arrangement designed to recall the logo of
Pollard’s beloved New York Rangers hockey team.
Photos by Steve Solomonson
COURIER LIFE, J M B G AN. 18–24, 2019 3
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
It was a Kings send-off.
Thousands of mourners
gathered on Jan. 11 to say
goodbye to one of New York’s
Bravest, who died on duty after
falling from the new Mill
Basin Bridge days before.
Mourners packed the pews
at Marine Park’s Good Shepherd
Church to pay their last
respects to fi refi ghter Steven
Pollard of Canarsie’s Ladder
Company 170, the Fire Department’s
1,151 member to make
the ultimate sacrifi ce in the
line of duty and a true hero,
according to his chief.
“Steven was everything we
want in a fi refi ghter: strong,
smart, hard-working, dedicated,
and above all else, brave,”
Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro
said at the service.
Bravery was in 30-yearold
Pollard’s blood, according
to Nigro, who noted that
the deceased followed in the
footsteps of his dad, a retired
32-year veteran of Bedford-
Stuyvesant’s Ladder Company
102, and his brother, a current
11-year member of Sunset
Park’s Ladder Company 114,
who both attended the funeral
with Pollard’s grieving mother
Janet and his girlfriend.
“No doubt, he had been preparing
his entire life for this
moment — to be a fi refi ghter.
He worked so hard for this career,
to follow his father — and
his brother — into the world’s
greatest fi re department,” Nigro
said.
Pollard, who lived in Marine
Park, took his fatal fall after
he and his crew rushed to
the scene of a two-car collision
on the Belt Parkway’s recently
opened bridge near Floyd Bennett
Field on Jan. 6 just after 10
pm.
He plummeted 52 feet after
slipping through a three-foot
gap in the span, which he tried
to cross from its Bay Ridge–
bound side in order to help victims
injured in the crash on
the span’s Queens-bound side
— a heroic fi nal act that ended
his life far too soon, according
to Mayor DeBlasio.
“What Steven Pollard saw
was a fellow New Yorker, a fellow
human being in a crumpled
SUV out on the Belt Parkway.
He did not hesitate. He
saw someone in danger. He
saw that someone needed help.
He rushed forward and at that
instant he gave his life,” Hizzoner
said at the funeral.
And friends, family, and offi
cials were not the only ones
who grieved for Pollard — the
athletes on his beloved hometown
hockey squad, the New
York Rangers, also expressed
their condolences to the late
fi refi ghter’s loved ones.
“#NYR observe a moment
of silence in honor of fi refi
ghter and Blueshirts fan
Steven Pollard and his family,
and to acknowledge all the
men and women in uniform
who put their lives on the line,
each and every day,” the team
Tweeted the day before the funeral
service.
Following the ceremony, a
motorcade featuring dozens
of motorcycles, Police Department
helicopters, Fire Department
bag pipers, and Ladder
170’s truck — which carried
Pollard’s fl ag-draped coffi n —
made its way to Green-Wood
Cemetery, where the local
hero was laid to rest.