FDNY investigators are focusing on whether a city firefighter from Bethpage who fell five stories to his death in Queens was jolted from a raised fire truck bucket, an official said Friday afternoon.
William Tolley, 42, was getting in the bucket or had just gotten in it when the accident occurred, said the official, who was briefed on the preliminary findings of the investigation. Tolley, from Ladder 135, was not yet harnessed, according to the official. “He hadn’t had an opportunity to do that yet,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official said there is a piece missing from the top of the five-story apartment building in Ridgewood, and that corresponding piece may have been found on the ground.