3 late EMS heroes with Staten Island ties honored at anniversary gala

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Dozens of emergency medical technicians and paramedics who have died in the line of duty were recognized recently at their union’s 50th Anniversary Gala in Queens.

Among the faces displayed in a stirring video played on monitors throughout the venue were three heroes with Staten Island ties. All of them died as a result of 9/11-related illnesses.

Surviving family members of one EMS worker who died recently stood solemnly around a monitor, joined by active FDNY EMS members offering their support.

The gala was hosted by the Local 2507, which represents FDNY paramedics and emergency medical technicians.

S.I. heroes remembered in tribute

In 2013, FDNY members traveled to the home of former Staten Island Paramedic John Wyatt Jr., with acknowledgements that were long overdue, the Journal of Emergency Medical Services reported.

Wyatt, who served with the EMS Command for 25 years before retiring in 2008, worked at the World Trade Center site for months after the tragedy. He was diagnosed with a 9/11-related cancer in 2012, and died in 2013.

“He was not only a great paramedic, but also a genuinely kind, loyal and compassionate friend and mentor,” read an in memoriam post by NYC EMS 10-13 on Facebook.

William Olsen, a former FDNY EMS captain at Station 23 in Rossville, retired from the department in 2010.

“He was proud to have been a first responder and later worked tirelessly at Ground Zero,” his family said following his death in 2014, the Advance/SILive.com reported at the time.

Olsen, a Great Kills resident, also volunteered as an EMT with Bravo Volunteer Ambulance Services in Brooklyn. He was an avid Yankees and Giants fan and enjoyed spending time with his two granddaughters.

In 2015, former Staten Island paramedic Mark Harris was featured in an article in the Palm Beach Post in Florida, where he had moved later with his family.

Harris described nightmares of the “thick, black cloud of smoke that nearly suffocated him” at Ground Zero. He said he could still picture “people jumping from the buildings.” And that he would “never forget what it felt like to be buried in rubble.”

He died in 2017.

“There were many heroes that day,” Harris told the reporter. “Many people woke up that morning and just went to work not thinking of anything, and then they died.”