BEDFORD STUYVESANT — A motorcyclist was killed after being struck by a fire truck responding to a call in Bedford-Stuyvesant on Monday, officials said.
Reginald Brown, 46, a father of two, was riding his Kawasaki less than two blocks from his house when a fire truck from Ladder Co. 111 crashed into him at Marcy Avenue and Monroe Street, NYPD and fire officials said.
The truck was on its way to Nostrand and Quincy avenues, responding to a call of a building on fire about 4 p.m., when it hit the motorcyclist, according to FDNY officials.
Brown was taken to Woodhull Hospital where he then died.
Friends said he was on his way home from work to change before heading to a memorial for another motorcyclist, who was struck and killed in Brooklyn a year ago.
"He was a hard-working guy," said Brown's childhood friend, Sidest Mahadi, 35, who rode with him as part of a motorcycle club called the Brooklyn Knights.
Brown worked three jobs, inlcuding one in construction and one at Doe Fund, a nonprofit that helps find jobs for homeless people, according to friends.
"He's a careful guy," Mahadi said. "He awlays gets to barbecues last. He follows all the rules [of the road]."
The fire truck was headed north on Marcy Avenue and the motorcyclist was heading west on Monroe Street when the truck, sirens blaring, went through a red light and slammed into the motorcyclist, witnesses said.
He was catapulted into the window of a nearby beauty salon.
"By the time he got to the intersection, the fire truck came through and hit him," said a 59-year-old woman, sobbing, who declined to give her name and who lives on Monroe Street. "He went flying through the air and hit the glass of the beauty salon."
She added, "I've been crying ever since I saw him get hit."
Jimmy Vargas, 47, who lives on Marcy Avenue and knew Brown through the Doe Fund, said that people on the block were screaming to the fire truck to slow down as the accident was unfolding.
"Everyone was yelling at the fire truck and cursing," said Vargas, noting that he saw a very shaken up fireman as well.
"[Brown] is a terrific person, very down-to-earth," he added.
The FDNY was investigating the incident.
"The Fire Department investigates any major accident," a spokesman said.
The fire at Nostrand and Quincy avenues turned out to be outside of a building, most likely involving garbage, the FDNY said. That, too, is being investigated, officials said.
