Rockville Centre mourns the loss of former Fire Chief Eric G. Burel

Volunteer firefighters lined up outside St. Agnes Cathedral on Tuesday morning to pay their respects to Eric G. Burel, a former chief of the Rockville Centre Fire Department who died on July 4, succumbing to a long illness. He was 59.

Burel was the superintendent of the Plainview Volunteer Fire Department for the past 26 years.

His storied career in the volunteer fire service began when he was 18. He grew up in nearby Malverne, where he attended school before enrolling at Nassau Community College.

In 1982, Burel joined the Malverne Fire Department, where he served as a line officer for 10 years before transferring to the Freeport F.D. in 1992. He spent nine years in Freeport, five of them as a line officer, before being promoted to captain.

After moving to Rockville Centre, Burel joined Woodland Engine Company No. 4 in July 2000. He served the RVCFD for six years as a line officer, from 2005 to 2011, and as captain of the company from 2009 to 2011.

“Chief Burel served as a fireman for over four decades and as Chief of the RVCFD from 2019 to 2021,” Mayor Francis Murray and the village board posted on social media. “He was an exemplary public servant who dedicated his life to protecting others. Our prayers and condolences go out to his family and friends, as well as his family at the Rockville Centre Fire Department and especially Woodland Engine Company 4.”

Burel was also a key member of the Woodland Engine Company drill team. Through the years, he helped lead the company to 10 New York State Old Fashioned Drill championships. The New York State Team Captains Association honored him as a lifetime member in 2010.

Burel was elected second assistant chief of the department in 2015, and first assistant chief in 2017 before becoming chief in 2019.

He is survived by his wife, Donna, and his son, Eric Jr., a military veteran and an active member of Reliance Hose Company No. 3 in Rockville Centre.

More than 300 firefighters attended a Firematic service on Monday night at the St. Agnes Parish Center, which was followed by a funeral Mass at the cathedral on Tuesday morning.

“I didn’t expect to be here this early in my dad’s life,” Eric Jr. said at Tuesday’s service. “I wasn’t really sure what to say when I got up here. There are a million different stories I could tell. Many of you know them, and many of you were a part of them.”

After thanking his family, fellow firefighters and the clergy for all their help and support, Eric Jr. said that some of the fondest memories he had of his father were of waking up early or staying up late to watch the Woodlanders drill team compete in the annual tournaments.

“There’s even a picture of him holding me when I was 3 months old, after he won the state tournament with the Freeport Wide Awakes in 1997,” Eric Jr. said. “Needless to say, my dad taught me very early on how to hold a trophy and how to celebrate like a champion.”

Burel concluded by saying that he planned to compete in the Nassau County Old-Fashioned Drill tournament on Friday night, because that’s where his father would want him to be, and how he would want to be remembered.

“On behalf of Bishop Barres and Bishop Murphy and the other priests of the cathedral, we express to each of you our heartfelt and deepest condolences to the passing of a giant of a man,” the Rev. Michael Duffy told the congregation. “A man who leaves behind a legacy that any one of us should feel proud to carry upon ourselves. That legacy of life and of love and of service. The members of our fire department who are gathered here today give a living testimony to this good man.”

After Tuesday morning’s service, members of the RVCFD escorted Burel to his final resting place at St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale.