By Patrick Markey
A Derry immigrant was killed last week in a freak accident after he tumbled from a fire escape in the Bronx while trying to help the superintendent in his building, police and friends said.
Allister Rea, who was 31, died a few hours after the accident at Jacobi Hospital of head injuries, a police spokeswoman said.
Originally from Bellaghy in southern County Derry, Rea, friends said, had arrived in New York about a year ago from Philadelphia. He was working as a carpenter. On Saturday, a bus ferried a group of his friends and his 20-year-old brother, Gerard, from Philadelphia for a wake in the Bronx, according to Fr. Bob Larkin, who performed the service.
The accident occurred on Thursday at approximately 9:10 p.m. while Rea was on the fire escape of 3822 Bailey Ave. in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx. When part of the fire escape structure collapsed, he slipped three floors to the ground, a police spokeswoman said. Rea was taken with trauma injuries to Jacobi Hospital.
A hard-working, popular man who had just recent joined the County Derry Association, Rea had been helping organize the county’s annual dance. Funds from the dance will go to assist a church in Rea’s hometown, according to the association’s president, Chris McLaughlin.
Sign up to The Irish Echo Newsletter
"He was the oldest of seven, four boys and three girls. His youngest brother, Gerry ,went back with the body and said he won’t be coming back," McLaughlin said.
Rea’s body was flown back to Northern Ireland on an Aer Lingus flight on Sunday.