Firefighter’s widow gets a key assist
THE GRIEF-STRICKEN dad of one of the Queens fire victims broke down Monday at the scene of the deadly blaze, where fire officials said they found no working smoke detectors.
Glen Edwards’ 17-year-old daughter, Melody, was visiting her friend Jada Foxworth in the Queens Village home that went up in flames Sunday afternoon.
“When I got the news, I was at church,” said Edwards, 62. “I never answered the call. I don’t take my phone to church . . . . It hurts. It’s so much.
“I heard it on TV. I never knew she died at the time. Her mother said, ‘Call me again. Glen, you hear what happened to Melody?’ I said, ‘What?’ ‘She died in the fire in Queens.’ The one I was watching on TV.”
Investigators are still probing the cause of the blaze.
“I want to know what happened,” Edwards said. “I lost my baby. That was a gift for me, that girl.”
Melody’s mother, Rosetta Blake, eyes covered by dark sunglasses, couldn’t hide the tears that welled up when the family gathered for a prayer.
“She was a good girl. I was preparing for her prom and her graduation . . . She was bright . . . she was a friend to many,” Blake said, adding that Melody was eager to go to college and wanted to be a lawyer.
Neighbor Benjamin Gordon, 45, said he spotted flames shooting from the roof of the house on 218th St. The fire broke out at about 2:20 p.m. in the 97-yearold wood-frame home and THE WIDOW of fallen firefighter William Tolley made an emotional visit to his Queens firehouse Monday to give thanks to a charity that helped pay off the family’s mortgage.
Marie Tolley expressed her gratitude at the outpouring of support after members of the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation announced they would cover the payments on the family’s Bethpage, L.I., home.
“Billy cared very deeply for firefighters, police officers, first responders and military,” she said in front of the Glendale firehouse with her daughter Isabella, 8.
“Thank you to Frank Siller and everyone from the Tunnel to Towers Foundation for your incredible support,” Marie Tolley said.
Tolley fell five stories from a roof last Thursday while battling a Queens fire.
The ceremony was also attended by Tolley’s stepfather, Frank DeCillis, and mother, Marie DeCillis, along with his brother Robert Tolley.
“It’s just unbelievable that things like this happen,” said Frank Siller, CEO of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. “Our firefighters go out every day to protect our community with the real possibility that they may not come home,” he said.
The foundation was created to honor the memory of Firefighter Stephen Siller, who died at the World Trade Center on 9/11.