By Laura French
NEW YORK — A playground in the Bronx has been renamed in honor of FDNY EMT Yadira Arroyo, who was killed in an ambulance hijacking in 2017.
Family, friends and fellow FDNY members gathered at the playground Thursday for the unveiling ceremony of the sign bearing Arroyo’s name. The ceremony was hosted by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
“Four years ago, Yadi’s life was taken just blocks from here. She was murdered as she bravely tried to do her job and respond to a call for help from a pregnant woman having a medical emergency,” FDNY Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said in a statement. “She was a true hero, not because she was cruelly taken from us all far too early, she was a hero because every day she came to work and went out to the community answering calls for help.”
Arroyo was the mother of five sons and is also remembered as a leader, mentor and mother figure to her fellow EMS providers, Nigro said.
An emergency call box was installed in Arroyo’s memory in 2019 and a street was also co-named after her in 2018. Arroyo’s brother, Josel Rosado, became an FDNY EMT in 2019 to honor his sister’s legacy.
“She was without question a remarkable woman, and one very deserving of this honor,” Nigro stated.