A 59-year-old FDNY EMT who worked the 9/11 World Trade Center site rescue and recovery has died as a result of COVID-19, officials said late Sunday.
Gregory Hodge was a 24-year veteran of the FDNY who most recently was assigned as a watch commander at the city's Emergency Management office, monitoring citywide radio frequencies, forecasts and serving as part of the unit's 24/7 emergency management operation, the FDNY said.
While Hodge was an EMT he was not actively working an ambulance rig at the time of his death. He is survived by an adult son.
"EMT Hodge was a skilled first responder who provided outstanding emergency medical care to thousands of New Yorkers throughout his long and distinguished career of service,” FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said in a statement. “This pandemic has impacted our Department at every level, especially our EMS members who are responding to more medical calls than ever before. Now, they will continue to bravely answer those calls with even heavier hearts, having lost one of their fellow EMTs to COVID-19. Our entire Department mourns his loss.”
A resident of Manhattan, Hodge began his career assigned to Station 16 in Harlem. He later worked at Station 55 in the Bronx and then NYCEM.
Hodge is among the more than 9,300 New York state has lost to date to COVID-19. The city has born the brunt of the fatalities and the total cases, accounting for more than 100,000 COVID-19 cases to date.
