With 'heavy' hearts
Metal fans salute fallen firefighter
Rest in power, say Firefighter Bill Tolley’s second band of brothers: bandmates and fans of his highly-regarded heavy metal band.
Online tributes have been pouring in for the fallen FDNY hero since he plummeted to his death Thursday in a tragic Queens firefighting accident — but some of the most heartfelt are from devoted fans of the Long Island “slam” band for which Tolley was the powerhouse drummer.
“Rest in Peace Our Brother Wil- liam ‘Bill’ Tolley,” members of the popular band Internal Bleeding inscribed at the start of their latest single, “Final Justice,” which is now dedicated in his memory.
“Drummer. Brother. Firefighter. Hero. Friend,” the tribute reads. “Life will never be the same without him. We love you, Bill. Slam on.”
The single and accompanying video had long been scheduled for release on Friday, and despite Tolley’s death one day prior, the release date was kept. Tolley would have wanted it that way, the band explained on Facebook.
“Bill was our rock, our heart, and supplier of insane laughter,” the band said in a statement, calling him “the heartbeat of the band.” Fans grieved — and raved. “RIP Bill,” wrote fan Yospie Cardoso, a photographer. “A full kit waits for you in the afterlife with heads that don’t need replacing and sticks that never break.”
Tolley, 42, fell five stories while trying to get his ladder bucket unstuck from a rooftop ledge at the scene of an apartment fire in Ridgewood.
The 14-year veteran left behind a wife, Marie, and an 8-year-old daughter, Bella.
On Saturday, the charred apartment still reeked of smoke. The sheetrock had been stripped from the walls, apparently by firefighters searching for hidden smoldering.
“They lost everything,” one neighbor said of the quiet grandparents who lived for years in the secondfloor apartment on Putnam Avenue.
The couple, identified by public records and neighbors as Sushila and Mohan Suwal, could not be reached for comment Saturday.
Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro has said the fire was started when burning incense was left unattended in the apartment.
The Suwals’ hallway often smelled of incense, multiple neighbors told The Post. The couple did not speak to neighbors, one said.
“They go, they don’t look at you,” he said. “Just go right by you.”
A wake is set for Tolley on Tuesday and Wednesday at Chapey & Sons Funeral Home in the firefighter’s hometown of Bethpage.