Injured firefighter 'blown away' by visit from New York fire officers

Patrick Berry, the firefighter who was seriously injured while working at a house fire last autumn, said he was "absolutely blown away" to be visited at his home by two firefighters from New York last week.

Patrick, from Athlone, is continuing his recovery after he was nearly killed when the gable wall of a house in Mount Temple collapsed on top of him in October.

Early last week, at his home in Assumption Road, he was visited by Martin Tolan and Kevin Mulrooney, representatives of fire departments in Long Island, New York.

The two men heard about Patrick's accident and organised collections on his behalf both at a meeting of first battalion chiefs of Nassau County, New York, and at last month's Mineola St Patrick's Day Parade.

Although he is now a long-time resident of New York, Martin Tolan is originally from Tallaght, Dublin, and has an aunt and uncle, Padraig and Clare, in the Athlone area. He is the Chief of Department at the Floral Park Centre Fire Company.

The parents of Kevin Mulrooney, meanwhile, are originally from Westport in Mayo. Kevin is an Ex-Captain of East Williston Fire Department and is president of the Nassau County Firefighters Emerald Society.

Patrick Berry told our sister ttile the Westmeath Independent he was delighted to have met the two men and some of their relatives during their Athlone visit.

"They had seen something online about my accident and got in touch," he explained. "They had organised a collection at a meeting of battalion chiefs, and also did a collection at the Mineola St Patrick's Day Parade in Long Island.

"They had a cheque from those collections and they were initially planning to post it to me, but then they said they were going to be in Ireland around the middle of April and would like to come down and meet me. So I said, yeah, absolutely, I'd love to meet you."

He said it meant a lot to him that firefighters thousands of miles away cared about his accident and went out of their way to meet him.

"It was really nice of them. They were lovely people. They were here for a while, and we chatted about all sorts of stuff.

"They were interested to know about how (the accident) happened, and were telling me stories as well about different things that had happened in their battalions."

The visitors also presented Patrick with NYPD and New York Fire Department patches, along with "a beautiful double-sided coin" from the Emerald Society of Nassau County.

Six months on from the accident, Patrick has been making steady progress with his recovery. The neck brace and 'moon boot' he was wearing when he first came home from hospital have now been removed, and he is again able to walk without a crutch.

"My collar bone is still broken and I have surgery on that coming up soon. I need to have knee surgery as well. I have a torn ACL, and torn cartilage in my knee, so I have to have surgeries for those in the next few months."

He is also still on pain medication but the dosage has been reduced considerably and he's hoping to come off it altogether in the near future.

At the beginning of last month, his home was a building site as a massive volunteer effort swung into action to renovate the property for an episode of DIY SOS: The Big Build Ireland on RTE.

The episode is for next year's series, and is expected to be broadcast in March or April of 2023. But Patrick said the renovation had already made a huge difference to the lives of himself, his partner Nicky, and their three children.

"It has changed our lives. It's taken a lot of pressure off us, and allowed us to focus on the recovery and not be worrying about finishing off the house or doing anything with it," he said.

"The producers of the show are lovely people and (its host) Baz Ashmawy is a lovely, down to earth guy. He is the same off camera as he is on camera.

"He's a really genuine person and made the filming of it quite easy. When you're not used to being on camera it can be quite a shock, but all of the producers and everyone from (producers) Motive Television and RTE made it so easy for us."

Patrick added that he was so thankful to everyone who had volunteered or otherwise contributed to the home renovation project.

"We had loads of locals (taking part), and lots of local businesses got involved and dropped down food for the volunteers. There were firefighters from Dublin, Meath and Wexford who came to help out.

"There were nurses here who were volunteering. One nurse in particular came down for the whole build and paid out of her own pocket to stay in the Athlone Springs Hotel. I think there were doctors volunteering... there were people from all walks of life and all parts of the country.

"It was just amazing. Most of the people who came (to volunteer) were complete strangers. Everything for the house and garden was donated from different companies. It's kind of hard to take it in, the fact that people would do that for somebody they don't know.

"They just heard about the story and wanted to help. It has changed our lives, and we're so grateful," he concluded.