A New York City firefighter died of a heart attack just months after being fired as part of Mayor Eric Adams' budget cuts to create funding for the city's migrant crisis, leaving his family to struggle financially and without insurance.
Derek Floyd, 36, suffered cardiac arrest and passed away April 15, the New York Post reported Sunday. He left behind a wife and two young children.
The outlet added that Floyd was just shy of vesting additional medical benefits for his family and more than $600,000 worth of death benefits when he was fired.
Instead, his family was left with nothing for Floyd's years of service.
"If Derek would have stayed on, he would have had a life insurance policy with the FDNY," Floyd's widow Cristine, 34, told the Post. "That would have helped out financially because right now, it's really bad. I'm honestly swimming in a lot of debt."
A GoFundMe page has been set up for people to donate and help the family.
Floyd's story has sparked outrage on social media.
"This makes my blood boil," Trending Politics co-owner Collin Rugg posted on X with a summary of the Floyds' plight.
Newsmax reached out to the mayor's office for comment regarding the Post story about the Floyds.
Derek Floyd had been let go by the FDNY after Adams enacted around $4 billion in budget cuts over the next year and a half due to the migrant crisis, Fox 5 reported in November.
The Post reported the FDNY budget was to be slashed by $74 million by the end of 2025.
Without additional federal aid from the Biden administration, the mayor wanted funding to support housing and services for the migrants arriving in the Big Apple.
Among the Adams administration's initiatives since then was launching a $53 million pilot program to hand out prepaid credit cards, to be used for groceries or baby supplies, to migrant families living in hotels.
Light-duty firefighter positions, such as Floyd's, were eliminated under the budget cuts.
A veteran who served three tours in the Middle East with the Marines, Floyd was one of about 10 released FDNY employees who had been on "long term duty," meaning they either were injured on the job and given office work or out sick for an extended period.
Floyd, who suffered another heart attack in 2019 while he was in the Fire Academy, had been working in the department chaplain's office. His goal was to become medically cleared to return to full duty.
However, he was fired weeks before Christmas, sources told the Post.
"What disturbs me the most is that the FDNY is understaffed by hundreds of firefighters. Terminating [Floyd] was absolutely unnecessary," Uniformed Firefighter Association President Andrew Ansbro told the newspaper.
"He had an important job, and the FDNY actually needed him in that unit. He was terminated so the department could prove that they were making cuts. He deserved better."
Cristine Floyd added that she "wouldn't wish" her situatiom "on anyone."
"I think it definitely took a toll once they let him go," she said. "He always tried to, like, stay positive about it, and he wasn't really angry.
"But you see a person, and the wheels are turning in their brain where they're just constantly thinking, so I definitely think it did affect us."
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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