A 15-year veteran, Lt. Michael R. Davidson died on Thursday, while fighting a basement fire on a film set in Harlem.
American flags waved overhead and a phalanx of firefighters lined both sides of Fifth Avenue on Tuesday morning as an engine carrying the coffin of one of their own, Lt. Michael R. Davidson, approached St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Midtown Manhattan, escorted by two ladder trucks bearing the nickname of his company, the “Harlem Hilton.”
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan stood atop the stairs in front of the cathedral doorway on Tuesday as the trucks approached followed by a drum corps and the engine draped in bunting. The engine stopped in front of the church, the drums stopped and several minutes of silence followed, before Cardinal Dolan led a procession carrying the coffin into the church.
Michael died with Christ and rose with him in eternal life,” Cardinal Dolan said. “May he now share with him in eternal glory.”
Lieutenant Davidson was overcome by smoke on Thursday night as his unit retreated from the intensifying flames of a fire in a basement in Harlem. He was pronounced dead a short time later, and on Tuesday morning, his life and his valor were celebrated in a funeral Mass in the heart of the city he served for 15 years.
Following his death, he was promoted to lieutenant, the 1,150th firefighter in the 153-year history of the department to die in the line of duty.
Directly across from the cathedral, Calvin Hunt, 56, of Harlem, stood behind a barricade holding a placard bearing Lieutenant Davidson’s photograph. Beside him, his 10-year-old son, Cameron, held a sign with a Fire Department insignia and a message reading “God bless the bravest.”
“I’m from Harlem and Lieutenant Davidson was part of Harlem,” said Mr. Hunt, a retired chef who used to frequent the former St. Nick’s Jazz Pub, where the fire broke out.
Mr. Hunt said he encountered the firefighter in July at a summer block party that the engine company held at their firehouse as a regular part of their neighborhood outreach. “He stood out,” Mr. Hunt said of Lieutenant. Davidson. “It was his personality, his character. He was full of fun.”
He died fighting a basement fire in the landmark building in the Sugar Hill section of Harlem. He was among the first to respond to calls from a film crew working in the building of smoke and flames coming from the cellar.
Lieutenant Davidson and others encountered heavy flames and smoke as they approached the source of the fire, and were forced to retreat when sirens on their oxygen tanks indicated their air supplies were low. But Lieutenant Davidson apparently became separated from the “hard line” his colleagues used to find their way to safety, and he collapsed on the floor above the fire. He was found with his mask off, as if he had removed it after running out of oxygen, and he was taken to Harlem Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead early Friday morning.
Two other firefighters were injured with burns in the fire and three civilians were treated for smoke inhalation.
The building, at 773 St. Nicholas Avenue, is set to be torn down after the city deemed it too unstable to stand. The demolition will also allow investigators to look for the origin of the fire inside the basement and cellar.
The basement had been the home of the longstanding jazz club, until it was closed down after a police raid in 2011. The crew of an Edward Norton film, “Motherless Brooklyn,” was filming in the former club when crew members smelled smoke and prompted the evacuation of the set and the apartments above.
Lieutenant Davidson left behind a wife and four young children, and came from a family of firefighters, with his father and brother also members of the department.
