Father and son firefighters both receive awards at FDNY Medal Day Ceremony

Lieutenant firefighter Patrick Donlon and his crew from FDNY Engine Company 75 had just finished up a job and were driving back to their Bronx station house when the firefighters were alerted about a fire inside of a six-story building just blocks away. After racing to the scene, Donlon entered the building where one civilian was trapped inside a third-floor apartment amid heavy fire and dark smoke.  

Donlon, braving the rapidly deteriorating conditions, crouched down to his stomach and, using a thermal camera, spotted an unconscious victim lying on the floor of the smoke-filled apartment. The lieutenant used his body to shield the victim and utilized all of his strength to carry and transport her out of the apartment so she could receive medical attention. 

“Lieutenant Donlon put himself at great personal risk while operating alone at this fire, crawling past an uncontrolled fire to rescue an unconscious civilian,” the FDNY said.  

For his acts at the Oct. 7, 2025 fire, Donlon Wednesday was awarded the Peter J. Ganci Medal, the FDNY’s highest honor for firefighters, at the annual Medal Day Ceremony on the steps of City Hall June 3.

“It’s surreal to be getting the top award in the fire department,” Donlon said after he was presented his award by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore. “I just never thought that something like this would happen.” 

Lieutenant Donlon’s father, Firefighter Timothy Donlon of Ladder Company 175 also received an award June 3 – the first time in 157 years of Medal Day Ceremonies that a father and son received awards on the same day. The elder Donlon’s award, the Thomas F. Dougherty Medal, was for bravery he displayed at a Brooklyn blaze – when he rescued an unconscious victim from an uncontrolled fire while using a portable fire extinguisher in his other hand – just days after the rescue that his son was honored for.

The duo come from a long line of firefighters, including late lieutenant firefighter late grandfather James McCarthy, who received an award at FDNY Medal Day in 1972.

'It was just us doing our job'

“These stories today are all remarkable, and incredibly, it's just part of a day's work at the FDNY,” Bonsignore told the firefighters, paramedics, EMTs and their families gathered in front of City Hall. “Take a moment, take a moment today to breathe all this in. Remember the scene here on the grand steps of City Hall in front of all your family and your friends in a moment I hope will define your careers. Know that this work, this work you do, is awesome and it matters and at a moment's notice, you are capable of extraordinary things.” 

This year's ceremony was also the first time the FDNY awarded medals honoring the special investigative unit of the bureau of fire prevention and honoring fire alarm dispatchers.

The top award for EMS operations, the Christopher J. Prescott Medal, was given to paramedics Naytasha Doyle and Paul Saladis III who were the first two responders on the scene of a fire on Dec. 23, 2025. The duo helped inform incoming emergency units of the dangerous situation in the building, evacuated residents and treated a critically injured victim.  

“At first I didn’t realize how big it was, it was just us doing our job,” Doyle said. 

Now a probationary firefighter, Saladais said that the duo “knew our roles and were able to summon the proper resources to get the job done.” 

The ceremony was the first of both Bonsginore and Mamdani’s tenure in their respective roles.  

"Today's medals represent far more than much-deserved recognition,” Mamdani said in his remarks at the ceremony. “They are a testament to the bond between this department and the people that this department protects every day. They are the symbol of 8.5 million New Yorkers' gratitude.”