Firefighters gathered outside the Westchester County home of fallen FDNY Battalion Chief Michael Fahy on Thursday as his wife, Fiona, and three young children prepared to say their goodbyes at a wake.
Deirdre Brett, Fahy’s sister-in-law, said the devastating loss was not just the family’s – his fellow firefighters and all city residents he served share in the grief.“He was an amazing, amazing man,” Brett told The Post on the phone.
She said Fahy, an attorney, left his career as a corporate lawyer 17 years ago to join the ranks of the Bravest.
“He worked at a prestigious law firm and he took a six-figure pay cut to follow his heart and follow his father’s footsteps to become a firefighter and he never regretted it a day in his life,” she said.
“That he was a rising star is no exaggeration. This is a tremendous loss for the city and an unbearable loss for us,” she added.
Two men were arrested in connection with the explosion Tuesday of a marijuana grow-house in The Bronx, where Fahy was fatally struck by part of the roof.
Julio Salcedo, 34, who was renting the West 234th Street house that blew up as firefighters were investigating a gas leak, was held at the Bergen County (NJ) Jail as a fugitive from justice.
Salcedo, who was still at the house when firefighters showed up, spoke to first responders but then slipped away, sources said. He was picked up Tuesday night at his girlfriend’s home in Cliffside Park, NJ, on a charge of driving without a license.
Salcedo, who has at least five prior arrests, is expected to be charged with pot possession, law-enforcement sources said.
On Wednesday, authorities arrested Garivaldi Castillo, who was allegedly cultivating pot inside the house. He was awaiting arraignment.
Fahy’s funeral is scheduled for Saturday at Annunciation-Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Crestwood, Westchester.
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