Brosi takes helm of UFOA

FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Brosi was elected president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association earlier this month, taking the helm of the union that represents the FDNY’s lieutenants, captains, battalion chiefs, deputy chiefs, medical officers and supervising fire marshals. He succeeds Lieutenant James McCarthy, who elected not to run for reelection following a two-year tenure. 

Brosi, a 30-year member of the FDNY and 20-year member of the UFOA, previously served on the union’s executive board as the recording secretary and pension trustee. He is currently assigned to Division Seven in the Bronx’s Fordham Heights section. In a statement, Brosi said his mission would be to protect UFOA members and ensure their long-term health. 

“That means more steps to prevent exposure to dangerous chemicals and more medical monitoring to help with early detection and treatment of cancer and other illnesses,” he said. “We recently fought long and hard for a new contract. I will fight equally hard to make sure we’re healthy enough to enjoy it.” 

Brosi knows the effects of 9/11-related health disorders personally, having watched his father, Joe Brosi, a former FDNY firefighter who spent 32 years with the department, succumb to cancer earlier this year following an eight-year battle with the disease.

Brosi said that even though no one can change what happened on 9/11 and the weeks following, elected officials and union leaders can ensure that those who suffered from health complications resulting from the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on World Trade Center get the best health care possible.  

“What we can do is continue to provide early detection,” he said in a Fox News interview on Sunday. “What we can do is continue to provide the treatment that was afforded to my father in the hopes that these people will continue to live fruitful lives that will go as long as treatment and luck and hope will carry them.” 

As of this year’s anniversary of the attacks, 341 firefighters have died from 9/11-related illnesses, just two fewer than the 343 Bravest who perished in the towers’ collapse. 

Elections for the UFOA executive board are held in May, and every position on the board is up for grabs each year. The new board’s other members include its vice president, Christopher Jensen, an FDNY lieutenant, and its recording secretary, Mike Tracey, a captain, who previously worked as a union organizer with the Service Employees International Union. 

Brosi, Jensen, Tracey and other members of the new board marched down Fifth Avenue in the Labor Day Parade alongside leadership of the Uniformed Firefighters Association. The UFOA, Local 854 of the International Association of Fire Fighters. The IAFF represents more than 340,000 firefighters and paramedics in Canada and the United States.