Peter Nelson, 42, had 15 years with the FDNY, all spent at Ladder 151. He was transferred to Rescue 4 only in July. His father was a retired FDNY assistant chief. Both his father and brother were firefighters and Nelson had begun his firefighting career at 18, by volunteering in Huntington Manor, L.I. He was a third assistant chief.
On 9/11, Nelson was working overtime because he had a new baby on the way. Although he had proposed several times, he married his longtime girlfriend just in August. She had finally accepted after they attended the funeral for the Rescue 4 firefighters lost in the Father’s Day Fire that year. It could have been Nelson, she realized.
Nelson was a gleeful father-to-be. “He talked to my belly every day. ‘I love you, Lyndsi. Treat Mommy well today,’ he would say.” Labor pains began during his memorial service on October 5th, and Lyndsi was born three hours later. On October 25th they found his remains.
Nelson also left behind two teenaged children from his first marriage.