EMT Frederick Whiteside died in the line of duty in 2023 but has been excluded from the memorial weekend service for the last two years
Fire Rescue 1
July 18, 2025
BRONX, N.Y. — The FDNY’s largest EMS union is calling for a boycott of the National EMS Memorial Service in Arlington, Virginia, after the event’s organizers again refused to include EMT Frederick Whiteside, a 9/11 responder who died in the line of duty in 2023.
Whiteside, 43, suffered cardiac arrest on November 17, 2023, while working at the Public Safety Answering Center 2 (PSAC 2) in the Bronx, one of the busiest 911 dispatch centers in the country. The FDNY officially recognized his death as a line-of-duty fatality.
Despite his documented service at Ground Zero and more than two decades of frontline and dispatch work, organizers of the National EMS Memorial, which is scheduled for July 19, have declined to include his name in the annual tribute for two consecutive years.
Oren Barzilay, president of FDNY EMS Local 2507, which represents 4,000 EMTs, paramedics and fire inspectors, condemned the decision.
“This intentional oversight is a horrific insult,” Barzilay said. “The National Memorial’s corporate leadership owes the members of the FDNY an apology and needs to correct this shameful, disgusting decision without further delay.”