Briarcliff Manor deputy fire chief dies of heart attack

By SEAN GORMAN
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: May 18, 2007)

BRIARCLIFF MANOR - Firefighters are planning a memorial service this weekend for a fellow member who suffered a heart attack and died this week while on his way to a fire call.

The services are being held to remember Deputy Chief Joseph E. Piazzi, a 76-year-old village resident who joined the department in 1971.

"Joe was a great guy," Briarcliff Manor Fire Chief Marty Gallagher said yesterday. "It's a big loss to us."

Piazzi had answered a series of storm-related calls Wednesday before returning home around 6 p.m., fire officials said.

He was on his way to yet another call when he began to experience chest pains and called 911 at 6:28 p.m., Assistant Chief Douglas Cacciola said.

A Briarcliff Manor firefighter and EMT who lives two doors from Piazzi on Hazelton Circle responded to his home about a minute after the call went out, fire officials said.

"When the first EMT arrived on the scene he (Piazzi) did say, 'I was going to the call, and I couldn't breathe,'" Cacciola said.

He was taken to Phelps Memorial Hospital Center in Sleepy Hollow and was pronounced dead about an hour later.

"He was a regular guy, a good guy, an astute firefighter ... The fire department was his life," Cacciola said. "He was a father figure in the department, a mentor to a lot of the younger guys."

Piazzi was the Briarcliff Manor chief from 1983 to 1985. Before coming to Briarcliff Manor, Piazzi was a captain in the Mount Vernon Fire Department, according to a news release from the Briarcliff Manor Fire Department.

Piazzi remained an active member of the department and in recent years helped with traffic control around fire department scenes, Cacciola said.

"Joe's a great guy. Joe was always here," said Tom Farrington, a deputy chief with the Briarcliff Manor Fire Department. "Whenever there was a call here you could count on Joe's red truck pulling up and coming into the firehouse. He's going to be missed."

Visiting hours will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. tomorrow at Waterbury and Kelly Funeral Home, 1300 Pleasantville Road in Briarcliff Manor.

There will be also be visiting hours on Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 6 to 9 p.m. A fire department memorial service will start at 7 p.m. Sunday at the funeral home.

The funeral will be held Monday at 10 a.m. at St. Theresa's Church on Pleasantville Road in Briarcliff Manor.