Hempstead officials are pushing to rename a waterway bearing a racially offensive term after a fallen Nassau firefighter.

Hempstead Town Supervisor Anthony Santino and others want to rename the Negro Bar Channel after former Inwood Fire Department Chief Joseph Sanford Jr.

Sanford Jr. responded to a house fire in Woodmere in December 2014 and fell through a hole in the first floor into the basement. He died days later from his injuries.

According to government records, the body of water became the Negro Bar Channel in 1963, when the U.S. government changed it from a more offensive word. In that year, Congress purged the "N" word from all American maps and marine charts.

Santino has written a formal request to the state and federal government to have the name changed to "Joseph Sanford Channel."

He says he got a positive response, but there's no word on how long the process could take.