‘His legacy will live on for generations’

Levittown’s Birch Drive renamed in honor of late East Meadow firefighter

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Birch Lane, in Levittown, off Bellmore Road, was renamed Paramedic Rudy Havelka Lane last Sunday, in honor of New York City Paramedic Rudy Havelka, who also volunteered in the East Meadow Fire Department for more than 35 years.

Havelka died on July 9, 2013, of an illness related to his rescue efforts at ground zero following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Dozens of East Meadow firefighters joined Havelka’s family, friends and neighbors, and local elected officials, at a ceremony arranged by the Town of Hempstead.

Havelka, who was 72 when he died, joined the EMFD in 1974, and became captain of Ladder Company 2 in 1982. In 1989 he was appointed deputy chief of the Nassau County Fire Service Academy. He was also an FDNY paramedic for over two decades, retiring as a senior paramedic instructor with the EMS academy in 2006.

In May, Havelka’s name was added to the New York State EMS memorial in the Empire State Plaza in Albany. His name is also on the National EMS Memorial in Colorado Springs. Both memorials honor EMS providers who died in the line of duty. “Rudy shared his lifesaving skills with thousands of other firefighters throughout New York,” said Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray, who led the proceedings. “His legacy will live on for generations.”

Havelka grew up in the Bronx, and lived in Levittown for nearly four decades. He and his wife, Pat, were married for 47 years. He is also survived by two children, Rudy Jr. (Diane) and Debbi (Gary), and five grandchildren, Tommy, Jack, Haley, Aidan and Peyton.

Murray said that Havelka died from exposure to carcinogens released into downtown Manhattan and nearby work sites, as he toiled at ground zero. “Thirteen years after 9/11, when our country was beginning to heal,” Murray said, “our wounds have been reopened, as thousands of first responders and recovery workers who spent weeks and months at ground zero have now developed illnesses related to their service. Rudy Havelka is emblematic of the ongoing pain and anguish that has been inflicted upon our nation and families by the terrorists of 9/11.”

Looming over the ceremony was a giant American flag, arched between two East Meadow fire trucks. It was the EMFD, Murray said, that requested the ceremony.

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