Firefighter Killed in Harlem Blaze Supported Others With Vigor

NEW YORK — When new firefighters arrived at his firehouse in Harlem, Michael Davidson would take it upon himself to supplement their training with advice on how to handle themselves at fires and even how to exercise. When a colleague’s daughter needed help, he organized a fundraiser. And just a few days ago, after another winter storm, he went around to neighbors’ houses with a snowblower.

Mostly, though, his drive to help people came through on the job. He followed his father into the Fire Department, even working in the same firehouse, and he had repeatedly been cited by the department for the bravery he demonstrated and his lifesaving actions. On Thursday night, he responded to a call of a fire tearing through an old jazz club being used as a movie set. He was critically injured and taken to a hospital, where he died.

“I only had eight years with him,” his wife, Eileen, said during a tearful interview. “But those eight years, we lived, and we loved. And we fought. But we really lived, because that’s what Michael inspired you to do. And I would take those eight years over 80, living them the way I did with my husband.”

Davidson, 37, was described by fellow firefighters as “strong as an ox” and “just full tilt everything.” Those who knew him said he approached his life outside firefighting with the same vigor. He and his wife had four children — daughters who are 7, 3 and 1, and a son who is 6 — and she said he would return after working a 24-hour shift and immediately start helping out around the house. (“He was a damn good cook,” she said.)

“He was a rock,” said John Hession, who grew up with Davidson in the Woodside neighborhood of Queens.

“As a man, he’s solid,” said Hession, who called Davidson his cousin and picked him to be the godfather of his first child. “He’s strong. He was humble. He was always thinking of others. He was very supportive.”

His death comes as the department mourned the deaths of two firefighters, Lt. Christopher J. Raguso and Fire Marshal Christopher T. Zanetis, who were among service members killed last week in a U.S. military helicopter crash during a transport mission in western Iraq.

Fire officials said Davidson, who joined the department in 2003 and was assigned to Engine 69 in Upper Manhattan, was the 1,150th person in the department’s history to be killed on duty.

“Firefighter Davidson bravely battled many fires and responded to countless calls for help from New Yorkers throughout his 15 years of dedicated service,” Daniel A. Nigro, the New York City fire commissioner, said in a statement. “Our department and our entire city mourn this tragic loss of a very brave firefighter.”

Davidson was cited four times for bravery and lifesaving actions, officials said. Last year, he helped resuscitate a woman who had gone into respiratory and cardiac arrest. And in 2005, he was working the nozzle as a fire swept through room after room of a Harlem apartment building, spreading across three floors; he burned his hands but did not retreat.

“Some people might back up and start again. Mike didn’t stop,” said Pete Driscoll, a firefighter who had also responded to the call and marveled at the way Davidson handled himself in many situations. “That was him. Once he got started on something, there was really no stopping. Whether it was a fire or an argument in the kitchen, there was no stopping him.”

On Friday, firefighters in plainclothes arrived at the brick firehouse on West 143rd Street where Davidson was assigned, hugging and patting one another on the shoulders. Police officers delivered food. Jacqueline Harrison was among the people living nearby who brought flowers.

“It’s sad, I feel for his family,” Harrison, a teacher, said. “He’s doing something for us.”

Davidson lived with his family in Floral Park, in Nassau County, in a colonial home with gray siding. His death was discussed in the neighborhood barbershop and at the pizzeria where he would bring his children. The postal worker who delivered his mail recalled how he “always had a kind word to say.”

Kim Kerekach, who lives two doors away, said he had shoveled for almost all the houses on the block after Wednesday’s snowstorm. “I was going to go to his house today and say thank you, and then we heard the news very early this morning,” she said. “It’s very sad.”

Davidson enjoyed taking his children to sports practices and Fire Department events, his wife said. They would play basketball in the driveway, and he recently built a snowman with his children in the yard. “It was always about his kids,” Davidson said. “I could tell when he had a rough tour, but it was never about him.”

Now, his family and other firefighters were grappling with his death. He had been so vital and such a force in their lives — “he had this, like, aura about him,” his brother Eric, who is also a New York City firefighter, said.

“He was invincible to me,” said Ken Reilly, who fought fires alongside Davidson. “I felt invincible because he was there.”