Firefighters Come Together With Wall of Patches to Honor Fallen Burlington Firefighter

A tribute is growing in honor of a 26-year-old Burlington firefighter who died after suffering a medical emergency while fighting a fire in New Hartford last week.

Colin McFadden, a member of the Burlington Volunteer Fire Department, was one of the many firefighters who responded to help put out a massive fire at the historic New Hartford House in New Hartford last week when he suffered a medical emergency and was rushed to John Dempsey Hospital for emergency surgery.

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That is where doctors discovered that he had a rare form of leukemia that had not been diagnosed, according to fire officials. Two days late, McFadden passed away.

Firefighter Colin McFadden was a member of the Burlington Volunteer Fire Department.

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In honor of a fellow firefighter, members of many departments have come together to honor McFadden and fire departments from across the state have been placing their patches on the chain-link fence erected at the site of the New Hartford fire.

Lt. Ty O’Neill, a firefighter with the Riverton Volunteer Fire Company and a member of New Hartford Volunteer Ambulance, said the tribute started when New Harford put up an American flag and a photo of McFadden.

O’Neil decided to put up a patch from New Hartford Volunteer Ambulance, posted about it on Facebook and invited other departments to put their patches up as well.

Within a day, there were more than 20 patches. Now there are more than 100, he said.

“It’s been just such an amazing showing of brotherhood that everybody from all over the state is coming out with it and putting their patches up,” O’Neil said.