A Brooklyn community has closed ranks behind its fallen firefighter heroes.
Residents of Gravesend yesterday donated $54,700 to the Widows and Children’s Fund of the Uniformed Firefighters Association.
The total included $50,000 from Middlegate Securities, a Midtown firm whose co-owner, Alberto Sutton, lives in the neighborhood.
It also included $1,000 from lawyer Morris Mizzry and his 7-year-old son, Herbie, who emptied his piggy bank.
The money was handed over at a ceremony at the station house for Engine Co. 254 and Ladder Co. 153 at Avenue U and East Ninth Street.
Luckily, the station house lost none of its 53 firefighters in the devastating World Trade Center attack.
“I decided the best way to help was to start with the firefighters in our community,” Sutton said. “It’s my way of showing that our community is behind them.”
“God bless these firemen,” said Eli Gindi, who owns a real-estate brokerage and donated $2,600.
“I only have praise for them and what they’re doing. They’re super.”
And little Herbie Mizzry said: “I watched it on TV. They did a bad thing. They hurt people. I wanted to help, so I told my father I’d give the money I have in the bank to the children.”
UFA president Kevin Gallagher thanked the community members for their “outpouring of love and financial support.”