It was a routine call like so many others across William Tolley’s 14 years with the FDNY, a two-alarm apartment fire — until something went horribly, inexplicably wrong.
Tolley, 42, the married father of an 8-year-old girl, died after a bizarre five-story plunge while working on the roof of a Queens building hit by a small blaze three floors below, officials said.
“It was a routine operation, and somehow he fell from the roof,” said FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro at a grim hospital news conference. “It is a terrible tragedy for a department that has known more than its share of tragedy.”
Nigro said Tolley — assigned to Ladder 135 — was the 1,172nd member of the FDNY to die in the line of duty.