FDNY EMS Local 2507, the union of emergency medical technicians, paramedics, and fire inspectors, boycotted the National EMS Memorial Service Weekend of Honor for the second year in a row.
The annual ceremony, held in Arlington, Va., on July 19, honors first responders who lost their lives in the line of duty. Local 2507 members continued to protest what they describe as ongoing disrespect toward one of their members.
Frederick D. Whiteside, 43, an FDNY EMT veteran of 22 years who served at Ground Zero after the World Trade Center terror attack on Sept. 11, 2001, was working at Public Safety Answering Center 2 in the Bronx when he suffered a massive cardiac arrest and died on November 17, 2023.
“This is an extremely stressful job,” said Oren Barzilay, president of Local 2507. “It is known that heart disease goes with our field of work: It’s extremely stressful. You know, you have 100 units on your screen at any given time that you are responsible for; that means you’re responsible for 200 people.” PSAC 2 is known as one of the busiest call centers in the country, and union leaders like Barzilay recognize just how the workload can affect members.
“Especially in the New York State EMS, it’s almost like being an air traffic controller; that’s what being here is: It’s stressful,” he continued. “You make one mistake, and somebody’s life could be at stake. If [you] use the wrong key or type the wrong code into the system, something drastic could happen. We have people who go out on disability because of their heart condition from this job.”
The FDNY officially recognized Whiteside’s death as a line-of-duty fatality and honored him with a plaque dedication ceremony in November 2024. Whiteside’s mother, Audrey Anderson, attended the ceremony alongside Whiteside’s then 14-year-old daughter and other family members and friends. They received a trio of Teddy bears crafted from Whiteside’s uniform. Each bear features Whiteside’s official dispatch number and badges labeled “EMT,” and one is equipped with Whiteside’s former 911 dispatch headset.
FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito said at the plaque ceremony that “Frederick Whiteside was a dedicated and compassionate EMT — both on the streets and on the radio. He had the skills we look for in all members: empathy, compassion, bravery, and selflessness. He was a great mentor to the next generation of our medical professionals and made sure he passed down his knowledge and experience to others.”
Whiteside was recognized by the FDNY as the 1,160th member to die in the line of duty.
Anderson remembers him as the child who became her best friend after her husband died in 2005.
“That’s my only child,” she said. “And having my only child gone –– which I call him my ‘son shine’ –– my heart is going to be broken forever. They have honored my son at other memorial institutions, and to me, as a mother and as a grandmother, to know that my granddaughter will never see her father again … A lot of these things mean a lot to her because she can have this for the rest of her life, and she will know how much her father loved his job and loved her.”
Calls and emails from the AmNews to the National EMS Memorial Service were not answered by press time, but Barzilay said he can’t understand why the national organization won’t memorialize Whiteside. He said that when the union asked to have Whiteside memorialized, they were told that because he was a dispatcher, they would not do it. However, Barzilay said the organization has memorialized dispatchers from other states in the past, with the same job description and duties, on their wall.
“I don’t know if it’s because of the new administration that [the National EMS Memorial Service] has [not done this], and they don’t understand how things operate in the FDNY, but there are many people on that wall who are not even EMTs or paramedics. But because they died while doing a rescue job, they put them on it. [There are] a lot of people who are frustrated with them, even internally — with some of the people who are making this decision.”
Whiteside was is and always will be a good man.he did his job both on the street and in dispatch with pride and honor.he had a lot to give and then some.he will be missed by all.R.I.P brother.Lost but not forgotten.
R.I.P brother