Fire fighter and Marine vet Derek Floyd was booted from his job to free up money for migrants
A New York firefighter has died of a heart attack just months after being fired to ease pressure on public finances due to the city’s migrant crisis. Nearly 200,000 migrants have arrived in New York over the past two years, stretching public services to breaking-point.
Derek Floyd, a 36-year-old father of two and Marine veteran who served three tours in the Middle East, died of a heart attack on April 15, four months after he was fired by the city. Floyd was among a number of Fire Department employees who were fired just weeks before Christmas last year.
At the time of his firing, Floyd was working a desk-job for the Fire Department. He had suffered a heart attack in 2019 and was working towards being medically cleared for frontline duties again.
“I wouldn’t wish it on anyone,” Floyd’s wife Cristine told The New York Post.
“I think it definitely took a toll once they let him go. He always tried to… stay positive about it, and he wasn’t really angry.
“But you see a person, and the wheels are turning in their brain where they’re just constantly thinking, so I definitely think it did affect us.”
Although Derek Floyd was able to find work with a veterans’ charity after being let go from the Fire Department, he lost access to years’ worth of benefits, including a life-insurance policy. His wife is now struggling to cope.
Mr Floyd’s firing came as part of City Hall’s broader plans to cut the FDNY budget by $74 million by the end of next year, in order to make way for additional migrant spending. Many hundreds more firefighters and their jobs are on the chopping block.
The NYPD and the city’s Department of Education are also set for swingeing cuts. The latter will have its budget reduced by $547 million.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has described the city’s obligation to house and feed the masses of migrants who are still arriving in the city as “our new normal.” In December last year it was estimated that the crisis had already cost the city $2.4 billion.
Fire Department representatives reacted with outrage to news of Floyd’s death.
“What disturbs me the most is that the FDNY is understaffed by hundreds of firefighters. Terminating [Derek Floyd] was absolutely unnecessary,” Uniformed Firefighter Association President Andrew Ansbro told The New York Post.
“He had an important job, and the FDNY actually needed him in that unit. He was terminated so the department could prove that they were making cuts. He deserved better.”
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