A young FDNY firefighter has died suddenly after battling a blaze earlier this week.
Firefighter Jesse B. Gerhard, 33, died Wednesday after responding to a two-alarm fire in Queens on Tuesday, acting FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said.
He suddenly collapsed Wednesday night at his firehouse, Kavanagh told a news conference Thursday morning, and died at a local hospital. Despite earlier reports he'd suffered a heart attack, Kavanagh said a cause of death is not yet clear.
Gerhard, a former EMT, was assigned to Ladder 134 in Far Rockaway. He was first appointed a probationary firefighter in Dec. 2017.
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He becomes the 1,156th FDNY member to die in the line of duty.
Early Thursday morning, cameras captured a substantial procession of police and fire personnel traveling through Manhattan to the city's morgue.
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