The wife of the FDNY fiܫrefighter who died b🌸attling a raging blaze in Harlem is a🗹 breast-cancer survivor, neighbors said Friday.
Eileen and Michael Davidson of Floral Park,💧🍬 LI, have four children — three girls, 7, 3 and 1, and a boy, 6.
“They’re such sweet people,” said a neighbor, Peggy Healy, 82🐠, adding tha♒t Eileen had fought cancer but “she’s OK” now.
A former neighbor call🌊ed Michael, 37, “🐭amazing” and “a great guy.”
“We’re a🔴ll devastated. [Eileen] just went through her own issues,” the neighbor, Patti Sowinski, 41, ဣsaid, referring to the wife’s battle with cancer. “And now to have this.”
“They have four little kids, and I can’t even put myself in that p♒osition,” Sowinski said.
Dav♉idson’s career with the FDNY spanned 15 years and he had strong fam﷽ily ties to the department.
His father, Robert Davidson, is a retired city firefighter of 26 years and worked mostly out of the same firehouse, Engine Co. 69, as he d✃id.
Michael Dඣavidson’s brother, Eric, is an 11-year f🃏irefighter with Engine Co. 88 in The Bronx.
A former firefighter who retired from the Engine 69 firehouse in 2🐭009 and knew 🍬Davidson and his dad also praised the fallen hero.
“He was well respected, a great father. He was just a great guy, young guy, in great shape, great reputation . . . an incredible young man,” the 🍰former firefighter said.
“We’re in a state of shock.”
Davidson’s neighbors recalled seeing Michael and his kids building a snowman outside the family’s home on Thursday hours before the nighttime blaze t𓆉hat 𒊎would end his life.
“I saw him yesterday afternoon. He was busy playing with his kids — before he went to work. He was just down in the snow, right in front of the house,” said neighbor Joanne Caldon, 67.
After this week’s nor’e🌃aster, Davidson cleared three neighborhood sidewalks with his snowblower.
“I just yelled across aওt him, ‘Thank you, Michael!’ He said, ‘Oh, you’re very welcome,’ ” recalled Healy, his neighbor. “He was such a kind man.”