Steinberg added to National Fallen Firefighters Memorial

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William "Billy" Steinberg, a firefighter who died in the line of duty in January 2022 was added to the National Firefighter's Memorial. Photo by Jim Steinberg.
The Steinberg Family at Memorial Weekend. Photo provided by Jim Steinberg.

FORESTBURGH- William “Billy” Steinberg is never far from the minds of the firefighters at the Forestburgh Fire Company #1.  Steinberg tragically died in the line of duty on January 15, 2022, while responding to a structure fire in Monticello.  Steinberg was 37 years old.

This weekend, Steinberg was added, along with 146 other firefighters from across the country, to the Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Emmitsburg, Maryland.  Steinberg’s father Jim, mother Laurie, and entire family made the trip for Memorial Weekend to see his name permanently added.

“It was an amazing, moving ceremony for the families that attended the memorial for their loved ones,” said Jim Steinberg, Billy’s father. “Families find comfort in knowing they will always have a place to go for support, and to remember the fallen.”

Steinberg was a fourth-generation firefighter with 22 years of dedicated service.  He joined the Forestburgh Fire Company in 2000 as a Junior Volunteer Firefighter.  In the years to follow, he was elected president of the company and then worked his way up through the line to assistant chief.  On his birthday in February 2022, he was posthumously promoted to chief.

The deadly fire was set by a serial arsonist, Mohammed Islam, who had been arrested and released under the state’s bail reform law after setting similar fires in the days leading up to Steinberg’s death.  In November 2022, Islam plead guilty to manslaughter, as well as other charges, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

William “Billy” Steinberg was added to the National Firefighter Memorial (Photo provided by Jim Steinberg)

Immediately after Steinberg’s death, his father Jim began an aggressive campaign to pass “Billy’s Law.”  Turning his grief into action, Jim Steinberg traveled the state promoting the proposed law that would close the “arson loophole” and would allow judges to set bail for defendants arrested for third and fourth-degree felony arson.  The bill is supported by the Firefighters Association of the State of New York and the New York State Police Investigator’s Association.

Steinberg is the fourth Sullivan County firefighter to have his name added to the wall, and is the first from the Forestburgh Fire Company.  There are at least three other firefighters that have been recognized in Emmitsburg in the past 30 years or so for line of duty deaths – Tony Dworetsky from Youngsville, George Davidson from Youngsville, and Fred Edwards from Liberty.

Memorialized locally on a monument that sits adjacent to Forestburgh Fire Company #1 are the words delivered by Jim Steinberg at his son’s funeral that best summarize Billy’s life.  “A hero is remembered, but a legend is not forgotten.”

 

 

 




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