Honoring an FDNY hero who embodied courage, devotion to duty, and love for family and community, the Floral Park Post Office on Tuesday was renamed the Lt. Michael R. Davidson Post Office Building.
Davidson perished when a Harlem building, being used as a set for a film, caught fire three years ago.
“Obviously, we’re caught up in our emotions and grief and thoughts but we thank you for giving us this celebration today so that we can honor Michael’s life,” said his widow, Eileen, during the livestreamed ceremony. “Michael absolutely loved this town … we looked forward to all those years of raising our children together.”
Speakers included Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City), FDNY Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro, Floral Park Village Mayor Dominick A. Longobardi, Long Island Postal District Manager Frank Calabrese and Floral Park Postmaster Harold Bonilla, who partly focused on the 15-year FDNY veteran’s service to the department and his community.
His widow, in words and a photograph montage, depicted an exceptional family man.
Davidson was just 37; before his father, Robert, retired, the two worked for Engine Company 69 in Harlem; a brother, Eric, is an FDNY firefighter in the Bronx.
His widow recalled how her husband was often seen pushing a double stroller around town. “”You always saw him, four kids in tow, always with a smile.”
“To have Michael’s name memorialized in this way truly is a gift to our family, and what a gift it will be to our children, to see their father’s name, and our family’s name” emblazoned on the post office, she said. “We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”
Her husband was the first one in — the point man — on a team that entered the Harlem basement on March 22, 2018. They were ordered to retreat because the situation was too dangerous, but Davidson couldn’t escape due to near-zero visibility. His colleagues returned to the building and found him unconscious. He died at Harlem Hospital.
To the FDNY commissioner, Davidson “was a true leader.”
“Mike is the kind of person who should be looked up to — and should be remembered always.”
Rice, who introduced the congressional bill needed to rename the post office, joined others in expressing the hope that Davidson’s legacy of courage and self-sacrifice will live on.
“Every time we pass this building we will be reminded of Michael,” she said.
