CANARSIE, Brooklyn (PIX11) — Family, friends and the FDNY community were mourning on Monday following the line-of-duty death of firefighter Timothy Klein, 31, who was killed while battling a fire in Brooklyn on Sunday.
The six-year veteran of the FDNY and a civilian died in the house fire in Canarsie. The blaze also trapped and injured several other firefighters, officials said.
The fire broke out just before 2 p.m. Sunday at a home on Avenue N. Klein was inside the home when the fire became too dangerous. The chief ordered everybody out. Then, before the firefighters could evacuate, a part of the building collapsed, claiming Klein’s life.
Five other firefighters were pulled out of the intense smoke and flames. They were rushed to the hospital. A total of eight firefighters were injured.
Late Sunday night, authorities said a person who was unaccounted for was found dead in the rubble. Their identity had not been released, as of Monday morning.
As firefighters continued to attack the flames, neighbors like Alicia Frasier watched in horror.
“Everybody’s just trying to make sense of it because they couldn’t get the hydrants to work. They were having issues, they needed more water. So I think that was the main issue to try and get the fire under control,” she said.
At the hospital, Klein’s colleagues and loved ones came together to give him a hero’s send-off.
“I can not describe the heartbreak to the FDNY today to have lost a member doing what they do best putting themselves in the line to save others,” acting FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanaugh said.
Firefighter Klein is the 1,157th member of the FDNY to die in the line of duty. Most recently in February, firefighter Jesse Gerhard, 33, died after suffering a medical episode at his fire station, one day after battling a house fire in Queens, according to the FDNY.
In January 2019, Klein eulogized his friend Stephen Pollard, who was from the same firehouse. Pollard, 30, died in the line of duty after falling 52 feet as he tried to climb between a pair of low concrete barriers separating two roadways on Brooklyn’s Belt Parkway.
The cause of Sunday’s fire remained under investigation. Now, heartache surrounds Ladder Company 170, where Klein was assigned after graduating from the Fire Academy.
“It gives us great pain and sorrow to announce New York City lost one of its bravest, Timothy Klein,” Mayor Eric Adams said during a briefing on Sunday.
Klein lived in Queens. He is survived by his father, who is a retired FDNY firefighter.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated when the fire occurred.
