Workers at the bus depot at Broadway and 220th St. took matters into their own hands when they wanted the depot’s flag to remain at half mast to honor a fallen firefighter.
Tim Reilly, a facilities maintainer at the Kingsbridge Bus Depot in Inwood, thought that lowering the flag was a proper way to pay respect to FDNY Battalion Chief Michael Fahy, who died Tuesday morning when he was struck by debris from a building on W. 234th St. in the Bronx that exploded.
But Reilly, 52, was surprised to get a call from MTA brass Tuesday night ordering him to raise the flag or face suspension.
“Not in a million years” did Reilly think he would be in hot water for honoring a fallen member of the FDNY, he said.
“I thought yesterday I was doing the right thing by them,” he added.
A firefighter died when this Bronx drug house exploded Tuesday.
(JAMES KEIVOM/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)
Reilly, a 34-year transit veteran, said he lowered the flag Tuesday after seeing a directive from Mayor de Blasio to bring flags on city buildings down to half mast in honor of Fahy.
TWU members at other depots around the city lowered flags in solidarity after hearing about the potential suspensions at the Kingsbridge Depot.
MTA spokeswoman Beth DeFalco said it was a “miscommunication” and that the flags can be lowered on all agency property in honor of Fahy. No one was suspended, she said.
For Reilly, the FDNY is dear to him — he has family members in the department and firefighters usually hang out at the depot.
FDNY Battalion Chief Michael Fahy died Tuesday in the explosion.
(HANDOUT/REUTERS)
“They’re dishonoring what he stood for,” Reilly said as the depot’s flag was being raised back up, before the MTA stepped in to end the flag confusion. “He stood for New York.”
TWU President John Samuelsen said there’s nothing in the MTA rulebook that explicitly prohibits the lowering of a flag without an order from the governor.
“This is brainless bureaucracy at its worst,” Samuelsen said.
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