Tyrone Rogers
FDNY-EMS
New York, New York
Tyrone was an EMT’s EMT. Having started his career in the New York City Emergency Medical Service, he cared for everyone he knew as if they were members of his own family especially the kids in the neighborhood. “Ty” worked on one of the busiest ambulances in the City of New York responding to more calls for help in one month than many ambulances around the country responded to in a year. When other units heard “Charlie of the 3-4” on the air they knew Ty was there to help.
Having worked in some of the meanest streets in the city, Tyrone witnessed on a first-hand basis what could happen to the younger residents of the area. This led him to help organize the first EMS Explorer Post in NYC with a small group of neighborhood kids who routinely spent time hanging out in front of his ambulance garage. The kids would follow ambulances and fire trucks to big jobs on their bicycles. Tyrone drafted other members of the station to help the kids with homework and insisted they stay in school. Many of the kids went on to enter the FDNY High School of Fire and Life Safety, earning jobs in EMS related fields, including FDNY EMS upon graduation.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Tyrone responded to the attacks on the World Trade Center and spent many hours searching the rubble in the days following. At the time he did not know the dust he was exposed to would eventually prove fatal. As a result of this exposure, he died on March 7, 2013. Tyrone’s legacy lives on in the hundreds of children he helped throughout his life.
Honored 2016