On July 22, Stamford rescue workers were scrambling in the night to save New Rochelle residents from drowning near the mouth of Stamford Harbor.
New Rochelle Firefighter Keith Morris, 30, died in that accident, but his brother and three friends were rescued.
On Tuesday, the Stamford heroes received the city’s official thanks for the efforts that prevented a tragedy from becoming even worse.
“Usually our council commendations and presentations of this nature have a celebratory quality,” Mayor Noam Bramson said at the podium in the City Hall auditorium. “This is much more of a somber occasion, but one that is in no way less important. If anything, the sense of gratitude that we as a community on this occasion express is even more deeply felt.”
The rescue workers stood near the mayor in their dress uniforms as Bramson recalled the loss of Morris, who, the mayor said, “served our city with enormous distinction” and was loved in the community.
“As horrible as that loss was, the events of that evening could have been even more tragic had it not been for the extraordinary efforts of the men who are standing behind me today,” Bramson continued. “And I know that I speak for everyone in New Rochelle when I express my enormous sense of appreciation and admiration for the work for the professionalism for the determination which saved lives and in the process saved loved one about whom so many people in this city care deeply.”
