Firefighter Rescues Two From Queens Apartment Fire

FDNY Insider 6/30/2008

Firefighter Michael Cunningham from Ladder 150 may not want to call himself a hero, but two women from Queens most certainly do. He rescued both of them from an all-hands fire at 196-03 Jamaica Avenue on June 28. “I was able to rely on my training and what I have learned from [other firefighters’] experience, and without panicking, carry out the job,” said Firefighter Cunningham, a four-year veteran of the FDNY. “I’m just happy it all worked out OK.” At 6:47 p.m., firefighters were called to a fire in a first floor apartment of a two-story multiple dwelling in Hollis, Queens. Within two minutes firefighters from Ladder 150 arrived on the scene, finding a heavy fire and smoke condition. Firefighter Cunningham said he went through an alley and cut the lock off a gate to reach the rear of the building, where he found fire blowing out the windows of a first floor apartment. He also noticed a woman on the second floor who was threatening to jump. “I told her to stay at the window and I’d be right back with the ladder, and thank God she did,” said Firefighter Cunningham...more>

4th Annual Adaptive Water Sports Festival Offers 

Wounded Soldiers Opportunities to Water Ski, Scuba and Sail

News Blaze 6/30/2008

As part of the Wounded Warrior Disabled Sports Project, a partnership between Wounded Warrior Project and Disabled Sports USA, severely wounded soldiers from the ongoing war on terror will have the opportunity to learn adaptive water skiing, scuba diving and other water sports as guests at the 2008 Adaptive Water Sports Festival. Specially trained volunteers from the Fire Department of New York City (FDNY) will be on hand to teach these sporting skills to those with amputations and other severe injuries. Activities for this year include water-skiing, scuba diving, sailing and fishing. The Adaptive Water Sports Festival will take place in Rockaway Point (QUEENS), New York from July 10-13, 2008. The Rockaway community was one of the hardest hit on Sept. 11, 2001 and ravaged again by the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 just two months later. Yet, the community proved resilient and responded with a surge of empathy, and charitable endeavors. Most notably, the Graybeards were formed, a non-profit dedicated to helping those in need. It is through the Graybeards, Wounded Warrior Project and Disabled Sports USA, that this event is again possible. "Each year I am amazed to see these wounded soldiers water-skiing and scuba diving," stated Wounded Warrior Project Executive Director John Melia . "Many able-bodied people are not brave enough to take on this challenge and I am filled with pride to see our wounded service men and women once again acting courageously and pushing their bodies to the limit."" A real camaraderie has built up between our wounded warriors and the members of the Fire Department of New York. Both know, first hand, what it is like to put their lives on the line for their country and community. We are honored to be working with the New York communities as they help us rebuild the lives of our brave wounded warriors through sports" said Kirk Bauer , Executive Director of Disabled Sports USA and a disabled Vietnam veteran...more>

Trade Center Rebuilding Faces Big Setback

WSJ Online 6/30/2008

The rebuilding of the World Trade Center, destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, won't be completed until the middle of the next decade, and will cost as much as $3 billion more than planned, according to people familiar with the matter. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the 16-acre site in Lower Manhattan, is expected to release a report Monday detailing significant delays and cost overruns on construction there. The report won't specify new completion dates or budget figures, but people familiar with the project say major components of it will be delayed one to three years and will cost $1 billion to $3 billion more than the current estimate of $15 billion. They caution that those estimates are preliminary and could shrink. "The executive director will give a candid assessment of where we are and where we need to go to get the site rebuilt," said Port Authority spokesman Stephen Sigmund. He dismissed the estimates as overly pessimistic. "Anyone giving you dates and budgets today would have to have a crystal ball."...more>

Fire Department Gets 276 New Members

Staten Island Advance 6/30/2008

The FDNY expanded its ranks during a graduation ceremony this morning, as 276 "probies" became full-fledged firefighters. Mayor Bloomberg and Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta presided over the affair, which took place at the Colden Center at Queens College. The new graduates include 35 members of the military -- including Probationary Firefighter Christopher Little, who is currently serving his second mission with the Marines in Iraq. His family attended graduation ceremony in his absence. Other graduates include Matthew Sweeney. His brother, Firefighter Brian Sweeney of Rescue 1, died in the line of duty on 9/11. The new firefighters recently completed an expanded, more rigorous 23-week training program at the department's Randalls Island academy. "Today is a proud day for New York City as we welcome 276 probationary firefighters into the ranks of the FDNY," Bloomberg said. "You are one of the first classes to receive the exceptional 23 weeks of training at the academy, and I know it has prepared you for any type of emergency you may encounter."

9/11 Junk Science

NY Post 6/29/2008

All the rhetoric about health crises affecting Ground Zero workers post-9/11 has finally been put to a fact test. And the data tell a different story.

For years, this page has been warning that the no-questions-asked benefits demanded by such as Sen. Hillary Clinton and Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler for anyone claiming a 9/11-related illness were an invitation to fraud. Sure enough, that's the case. And the cost to taxpayers could run into the billions. Lawyers defending the city against a mass lawsuit say that a detailed review of medical records for nearly 10,000 litigants (of the 40,000 people who worked at Ground Zero) shows that 30 percent only have nominal health issues. And 306 have admitted openly that they have no past or current health problems...more>

Some Lawyerly Advice on 9/11 Workers Case for Judge Alvin Hellerstein

NY Daily News 6/29/2008

The legal action seeking compensation for 9/11 rescue and recovery workers who were sickened by their service at Ground Zero reaches a critical milestone Monday: A federal judge has ordered the lawyers who are waging the case to start putting up or shutting up. Specifically, Judge Alvin Hellerstein has set this as the deadline by which the attorneys must produce the medical records of 10,800 claimants. This, so the process of evaluating how many of them are ill, and how seriously, can begin. The information has been too long delayed, and Hellerstein is rightly impatient. Should the attorneys, led by Paul Napoli and David Worby, fail to deliver, Hellerstein would be fully justified in imposing sanctions. One that comes to mind would be a cap on the size of their legal fees...more>

Belgian Recreates NYPD and FDNY in Miniature

Gothamist 6/29/2008

For some unknown reason, many Europeans are smitten with the NYPD. There are more than a few replica NYPD cars over the pond (ranging from quite accurate to comically inaccurate) some available for rental. So it is no surprise to find on flickr a Belgian named Marc who makes incredibly accurate HO scale models of NYPD and FDNY vehicles and photographs them on a miniature version of New York City streets complete with a precinct house and fire house. It is even more amazing that he has never even been to the city. The models, which are almost all custom made or modified, aren’t for sale and represent both departments from the present day back to the mid 1970s. They are used in recreations of police and fire scenes that are incredibly detailed...more photos>

Heat's On Bronx Pol for Fire Funds

NY Post 6/29/2008

A nonprofit group with ties to Bronx City Councilman Larry Seabrook received more than $300,000 in city money to improve firefighter diversity - a program that did little beyond burn cash, sources said. The "Firefighter Advocacy Program" - run by the Northeast Bronx Redevelopment Corp. - was supposed to "produce up to 25 members of the NY Fire Department each year," increase "the number of minority applicants and firefighters" and provide "information and services . . . [for] minority recruitment," according to the organization's proposal. In 2006 the group received $310,000 for the effort - with $205,000 earmarked for staff salaries. Two years later, the FDNY says its only contact with the group was a request to provide free posters and recruitment materials - which it was asked to leave in Seabrook's office. A source affiliated with the group said it did print recruitment materials and do community outreach, but steered most applicants into already established training programs run by the Vulcans, the FDNY's association of black firefighters, and John Jay College. The group also gave about $15,000 to the Vulcans for study materials...more>

A Walking Miracle: 47-Story Plunge Man Thanks Saviors

NY Post 6/28/2008

When window washer Alcides Moreno visited FDNY Engine Co. 39 on the Upper East Side, the sight of him walking, slowly but steadily, brought tears to the eyes of four men. Moreno smiled broadly and embraced the firefighters and paramedics who six months ago found him sitting in 10 feet of mangled railings and cables, miraculously alive after a terrifying 47-story fall. "Thank you, thank you," Moreno told his rescuers. And they thanked him. "To have you stand here today is a great gift for us," paramedic Gary Smiley told him. "You are always going to have a place in our hearts," said firefighter Dale McLoughlin. During last month's gathering at the firehouse, they recalled the cold Dec. 7 morning when the scaffold on the roof of Solow Tower at 265 E. 66th St. collapsed. Moreno's brother Edgar, 30, a fellow window washer, toppled off and died when he hit the ground. But Alcides, 37, stuck to the 16-foot-wide scaffold like a surfboard, which may have slowed his descent as he hurtled 500 feet onto the concrete below. The rescuers recounted how they found him crouched in a sitting position - still clutching the scaffold controls. They were shocked to see that he was trying to breathe. "We're going to take care of you," firefighter Patrick Connolly promised him. They hooked him up to an electrocardiogram and moved him - ever so carefully - "like a fragile egg."...more>

Remnants Await Return to WTC Site

Tribeca Trib 6/27/2008

It will be another three years before the National September 11 Memorial and Museum opens at the World Trade Center site. But for the museum’s curators, the monumental task of composing the 9/11 story is now. Chief curator Jan Ramirez and associate curator Amy Weinstein are gathering the photos, films, oral histories and personal mementos for the permanent collection. But it is the massive artifacts —the rusted and twisted tonnage of World Trade Center steel and the wreckage of emergency vehicles, for example—that will influence design and engineering decisions before the museum is built. Those objects, including a pair of  structural steel “tridents” from the towers and the 65-ton “Last Column,” are among a thousand World Trade Center remnants cleaned and stored neatly in Hangar 17 at JFK Airport. Within two weeks after the disaster, the former Tower Air hangar had become a repository of massive Trade Center rubble, some of which will be selected for posterity. Last month, a Trib reporter accompanied Ramirez on a tour of the 80,000- square-foot hangar, where she talked about objects being considered for the museum—decisions that will influence how generations of visitors try to comprehend the enormity of physical loss on Sept. 11. Only a few of the mangled vehicles in the collection can return to the site. Among those might be Engine 21, which had been parked at Church and Vesey Streets when the towers came down. Ramirez said that the truck’s cab, a burned-out wreckage, and its rear section nearly intact, is a potent symbol of the “quirk of fate” that day. “If you turned left you might have lived, if you turned right you might have died,” she said. Ramirez and Weinstein are on a quest to find the people and stories behind the objects.

For Engine 21, it is the last hours of William Burke, the revered fire captain who drove the truck to the scene that day. He perished on the 24th floor of the north tower after choosing to stay with two workers—one a paraplegic—though he knew the south tower had collapsed and the north tower was next. 

A Ladder 3 truck that had been parked on West Street, its cab missing, also is likely to be displayed in the museum, Ramirez said. One of Ladder 3’s men was the highly decorated fire captain, Patrick J. “Paddy” Brown. “We actually have recordings of his voice. We know he got up as high as probably the 43rd floor of the north tower,” said Ramirez. “He heard the evacuation order but stayed to make sure all the civilians were out. He was killed when the building came down.” “You have to be careful how you use the word hero,” Ramirez noted, “and we probably will not use that word. But there were incredible choices that were made that day.”...more>

Report Paints Bleak Forecast for 9/11 Memorial

 The Star-Ledger-NJ.com 6/28/2008

The $16 billion Ground Zero project is bogged down by cost overruns and slow construction and its most symbolic piece, the 9/11 Memorial, will likely not be ready for its planned opening on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, according to a Port Authority status report. The downbeat forecast is expected to be presented by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to New York Gov. David Paterson and made public on Monday at the agency's monthly meeting, according to officials familiar with the information. They spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information early. Agency officials say the report will not provide a revised timetable or estimate of how much the complete cost of rebuilding will grow at the sprawling site on the west side of Lower Manhattan. But one official said preliminary estimates - which will not be referenced in the report - see the cost rising anywhere from roughly $500 million to several billion dollars for the entire redevelopment...more>

With Wireless Network, City Agencies Have More Eyes in More Places

NY Times 6/28/2008

The idea is for city agencies to use network-connected hand-held devices and tablet computers to increase efficiency and flexibility: Soon, police officers will be able to view photographs of suspects from their cars, fire chiefs will be able to watch live video of fires taken from traffic helicopters above, and housing inspectors will be capable of looking up building plans while on location. “This extends the office to the field,” said Paul J. Cosgrave, the commissioner of the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, which has overseen the construction of the network. “We traditionally grew in silos, but this network allows us to grow together.” The need for a shared and secure network has been a priority since at least Sept. 11, 2001, when police and fire officials could not communicate at the World Trade Center because their radios operated on different frequencies. Though Nycwin does not yet handle voice calls, it sends data about 50 times faster than the networks now used by emergency workers and lets all city departments share information more easily. Oklahoma City, Tucson and Washington are among a handful of cities that are building similar networks, analysts said, and many others nationwide are considering following suit. The secure networks for municipal workers come after numerous emergencies during which commercial cellular networks operated by wireless phone companies quickly got overloaded. Over time, Mr. Cosgrave said, the network could also save money, as the city cuts the number of wireless cards and data lines it buys or leases from phone companies. Satellite tracking services like the one the Sanitation Department is using could help supervisors devise more efficient routes, eventually cutting fuel costs. And city officials and analysts said other benefits, like helping fire chiefs see different angles of the fires they are fighting, are invaluable. “It’s not just a tangible return, but an intangible one,” said Craig Settles, a consultant who advises municipalities on how to build wireless networks. “When you put these networks in place, it changes the way cities do business.”...more>

Chief of 9/11 Health Programs Gains Support

NY Times 6/28/2008

Labor leaders, business executives and members of New York’s Congressional delegation say they fear that the federal government’s health programs for ground zero workers will be endangered if Dr. John Howard, who has coordinated those programs since 2006, ends his term as scheduled on July 5. Dr. Howard’s strong support of screening, monitoring and treatment programs for ground zero workers has sometimes put him at odds with the Bush administration, which has been reluctant to provide long-term financing. The ground zero health programs have recently expanded nationally. Congress has appropriated about $108 million this year and proposed a similar amount for next year, but has made no commitment beyond that...more>

Deutsche Bank Tower Cleanup at WTC Forges Ahead; Removal to Follow

Commercial Property News 6/27/2008

After a nearly 10-month delay that followed a fatal fire last summer, cleanup of the contaminated Deutsche Bank building at the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan is proceeding full speed ahead, a top Downtown official said yesterday. At a meeting of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., board chairman Avi Shick said that contractors should finish cleanup of the contaminated dust in the former Deutsche Bank by the end of the year. Work resumed last month on the deconstruction of the tower at the southern end of the World Trade Center, which was damaged beyond repair in the 2001 terrorist attacks. The deaths of two firefighters in a fire last August caused LMDC to terminate the contract of John Galt Co., the original subcontractor for the demolition, and institute a host of new safety features. When new contractor LVI Environmental Services Inc. will be able to finish the unusual and extraordinarily complex removal of the building--also known as 130 Liberty Street--may be less certain. Instead of attempting to clean the structure and taking it apart at the same time, as John Galt was doing, LVI Environmental will complete the cleanup before resuming deconstruction. But LMDC’s goal for taking the tower down continues to be the end of 2008, a spokesperson for the agency confirmed...more>

Exploiting 9/11 - Lawyers, Unions, 'Scientists'

NY Post 6/26/2008

IT'S right to take pride in treat ing our heroes well. We should certainly compensate first responders who were actually injured as a result of exposure to the air on 9/11 and the following few days. But we shouldn't be suckers for every claim. And a quickly growing group of workers - many of them not even sick - are trying to collect "9/11 money." These people aren't heroes. To be fair, many aren't villains, either: They sincerely believe they're entitled to benefits - because lawyers, unions or politicians have talked them into it. These advocates want to discard the entire scientific discipline of epidemiology (the study of the causes of human disease) to promote their own narrow interests - at huge cost to the rest of us The lawyers' effort made headlines yesterday, in reports on a review of medical claims made in the name of nearly 10,000 workers suing the city in federal court for compensation for alleged 9/11-related illnesses. A review done on the city's behalf found that more than 300 of the plaintiffs actually don't even claim to be sick: They just fear they might fall ill sometime in the future...more>

Jacques Paultre, Firefighter at Ground Zero, Dies of Cancer at 52

Sun-Sentinel.com 6/27/2008

New York City firefighter Jacques William Paultre was on the street outside the World Trade Center when the second tower collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001. A 22-year veteran, he had already filed the paperwork for his retirement, said his wife, Chantal. But that day changed everything, and he stayed on another year to help at Ground Zero. "If I make it another five years, then I know I'm indestructible," he told his wife, who believes her husband knew his time was short. On Tuesday, Firefighter Paultre died of stomach cancer at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood. He was 52.Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, he grew up in New York City. Known as a happy-go-lucky practical joker, he was a great cook and totally dedicated to his job, friends said. Assigned to Engine 50, Ladder 19 in the South Bronx, Firefighter Paultre was heading to the command center about a block away when the North Tower fell. "The whole command center came down. All of the chiefs [at that spot] were killed," said retired New York City firefighter Tom Lynch, who worked with Firefighter Paultre for 22 years...more>

Where's City Hall?
NY Post 6/272008

It's been seven years since 9/11 and two city firefighters have died needlessly - yet still no one can say when exactly the deadly Deutsche Bank building near Ground Zero will be gone. Even as costs to remove it are put at more than a quarter billion dollars. This stunning news emerged yesterday from a meeting of the board of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., a city-state entity that owns the tower and (supposedly) oversees Downtown rebuilding. It's mind-boggling. And outrageous. And yet, it seems, the one top official who's been around for more of the project's life than anyone - Mayor Bloomberg - couldn't care less...more>

Ground Zero Redevelopment Progresses, Without Time Line

NY Sun 6/27/2008

A highly anticipated progress report on construction at ground zero is expected to focus on a scaled-back redesign of the PATH transit hub, demolition of the Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty St., and difficulties involving work on the no. 1 subway line, according to sources familiar with the report. To be presented at a board meeting of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on Monday, the report will not include something that had been sought by Governor Paterson: a detailed construction schedule with time lines for the reconstruction of the World Trade Center site. A construction official involved in the project said there was no purpose in the Port Authority providing unrealistic dates, especially with so many structural questions still unanswered...more>

Deutsche Bank Demolition Will Cost More, Take Longer Than Expected

NY Daily News 6/26/2008

Taxpayers will have to cough up an extra $37.5 million to demolish the deadly Deutsche Bank building near Ground Zero. The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. board Thursday approved spending the additional money, boosting the state agency's cost to acquire and demolish the toxic tower at 130 Liberty St. to $274 million. LMDC Chairman Avi Schick declined to set a firm date for when the building will be torn down. He has previously said the goal was by the end of the year. Thursday, Schick said he was "confident" 130 Liberty St. would at least be decontaminated by that deadline...more>

Firefighter Ellis Williams Bravely Battles Brooklyn Fire

FDNY Insider 6/27/2008

There’s no doubt, firefighting is a dangerous job. But on June 25, Firefighter Ellis Williams of Engine 202 proved it to be true as he battled an intense fire in Red Hook, Brooklyn. “It was a punishing fire, but everyone working there did a great job,” said Firefighter Williams, who became a firefighter in 2006 after serving as an FDNY EMT for five years. Dispatchers received a call at 3:42 a.m. reporting smoke in a fourth floor apartment on 774 Henry St. Within minutes, multiple calls were received for smoke conditions, fire and people trapped at the address. As they responded, Firefighter Williams said he could smell the smoke from two blocks away. “My adrenaline started pumping at that point,” he said. “Your training starts to kick in and you rely on what you’ve learned at the firehouse.”...more>

Apartment Fire Leaves 1 Dead in Midtown

NY Times 6/26/2008

An apartment fire in Midtown Manhattan left an 83-year-old man dead on Wednesday evening, officials said. The fire began shortly before 8 p.m. in Apartment 2Q of The Capital apartments at 840 Eighth Avenue near 51st Street, officials said. The victim was identified by emergency medical workers and the building’s superintendent as Oliver Bernard, 83, the lone resident of Apartment 2Q. Fire Chief Stephen Moro said the victim suffered smoke inhalation and then went into cardiac arrest. The victim was taken to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead, a spokesman for the Fire Department said. Chief Moro said the victim was found inside the apartment, a few feet from the front door, which firefighters had to break through. Fire officials said the cause of the blaze was unknown on Wednesday and that the investigation was ongoing...more>

FDNY High School Celebrates First Ever Graduation Ceremony

FDNY Insider 6/26/2008

Four years after opening its doors, the FDNY High School for Fire and Life Safety celebrated its first ever graduation ceremony on June 26. As “Pomp and Circumstance” played, 35 students walked across the stage at FDNY Headquarters to receive their diplomas. “This is the final part of your four year journey through high school, but it is part of your bigger journey through life,” said Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, the ceremony’s keynote speaker. The FDNY High School, which is part of the City’s small schools initiative, is housed in Thomas Jefferson High School in East New York, Brooklyn. It provides a rigorous academic program with a special emphasis on the academic, physical and moral rigors of emergency response...more>

Death Trap' Demolition Costs $280M

NY Sun 6/26/2008

Demolishing the Deutsche Bank building is going to cost at least four times as much as constructing it, sources with knowledge of the project said. After a series of delays, the 25-story building at 130 Liberty St. was supposed to be brought down by the end of 2008 to make way for the construction of Tower 5 at the World Trade Center site. But at a meeting today, the board of directors of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the state agency that owns the building and is in charge of its demolition, will not receive a firm deadline for completion.Instead, the board will be presented with about $40 million in additional costs for decontaminating the building, which was coated with toxic dust and debris during the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. The additional sum pushes the total cost of preparing the building for demolition to almost $280 million...more>

Ground Zero Workers and Attorneys Decry Times Article

WebWire 6/25/2008

Workers who became sick from exposure to toxic substances during the rescue and clean up process at the World Trade Center site following the 9/11 attacks, as well as their attorneys, reacted with disgust Wednesday to a NEW YORK TIMES article questioning whether, in fact, their clients were actually injured. “Contrasted against the Pulitzer Prize awarded to the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Editorial staff for their moving series of editorials about the plight of the Ground Zero workers, the TIMES article seems nothing less than a sad attempt to garner publicity for the paper and the author of the article by attacking the workers’ integrity and that of the dedicated medical professionals who treat them,” said John Walcott, a retired New York City Police Detective who suffers from leukemia his physicians have tied to Ground Zero exposure...more>

Engine 303/Ladder 126 Celebrates Its Centennial

FDNY Insider 6/25/2008

It was a day to honor the past and look forward to the future on June 25 as the members of Engine 303/Ladder 126 celebrated 100 years of service to the community of South Jamaica, Queens. During the ceremony on the companys apparatus floor, the firefighters also dedicated plaques to two firefighters from Engine 303 who have died in the line of duty. To risk your lives to save others almost always perfect strangers that was the essence of what it took to be a firefighter 100 years ago, and that is the essence of what it takes to be a firefighter today, said Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta. Lt. Albert E. Donovan, who died on January 24, 1924, and Firefighter Robert Pettit, who died on December 15, 1944, each received a plaque during the ceremony. Lt. Donovan died of a heart attack while operating at a three-alarm fire in Ozone Park...more>

First Responders Memorial Planned

Queens Gazette 6/25/2008

St. Michael's Cemetery, East Elmhurst, has dedicated memorials to the 76 Queens Firefighters of 9/11 and the men and women of the New York Police Department and Port Authority Police Department who sacrificed their lives saving others at the World Trade Center. On Saturday, September 6 at 1 p.m., the memorial service for the heroes of the attack will be joined by the families of First Responders who died in the line of duty. Members of the New York Police Department, Fire Department of New York and Port Authority Police Department will be honored. With the aid of the community and directors, St. Michael's plans to dedicate a First Responders' Monument honoring the fallen of the FDNY, PAPD and NYPD who died in the line of duty from 1995 to date...more>

Brave Reporter Tackles Training Test, But FDNY Scores Newfound Respect

NY Daily News 6/26/2008

Could I take the heat? That was my challenge at the FDNY Training Academy on Randalls Island, where I was invited to check out the department's new course for would-be Bravest. The academy offers a free 12-week course for anyone who needs help getting ready for the rigorous physical test that's required of anyone who wants to become a probationary firefighter. The program, which includes free access to New York Sports Club gyms, aims to increase the success rate for people who might not have the resources to properly train for the exam. So I put on a 75-pound vest and hopped on the Stairmaster, which is when reality started to sink in. This is hard...more>

City Pension Funds Lose Billions - Taxpayers Could Be on the Hook

NY Sun 6/26/2008

New York City officials are bracing for increased pressure on the budget as the city's pension funds are reeling from the credit crisis and posting billions of dollars in losses. In the nine months leading up to March 31, the city's five pension funds lost a total of nearly $5 billion, or 4.4%, according to data from the city comptroller's office. This is a far cry from projections published as recently as last month, when budget planners assumed the pension system would post no losses. If those losses are not recovered by the end of the fiscal year, which ends Monday, the city will have to pay out several billion dollars through 2015, with the first payment of $190 million set for 2010...more>

Cops Arrest 6 in Nassau, Suffolk for Illegal Fireworks

NY Newsday 6/25/2008

The Selden couple was caught up in a surveillance operation run by the New York City Fire Department that targets buyers of fireworks from out of state who return to New York where it is illegal to possess fireworks. The 23-year-old man and his 21-year-old girlfriend were charged with misdemeanor fireworks possession. "It's not a harmless act to transport this stuff," Asst. Chief Fire Marshal Alex Lynn said. Authorities do surveillance on various fireworks sellers in states where they are legal, write down the license plates of buyers and track them returning to New York...more>

Audit Says Follow-Up on Buildings is Lacking

NY Times 6/25/2008

The city’s Department of Buildings, which has already been the object of intense scrutiny over fatal construction accidents and accusations of corruption, is facing more criticism.On Tuesday, City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. released an audit finding that the department had repeatedly failed to make sure that hazardous conditions were fixed...more>

Suspects in Kennedy Plot Extradited From Trinidad

NY Times 6/25/2008

Three men who face terrorism-related charges in connection with a plot to blow up fuel tanks at Kennedy International Airport were extradited from Trinidad on Tuesday night. The men were expected to arrive at Kennedy Airport at 3 a.m. Wednesday via Puerto Rico and were scheduled to be arraigned in United States District Court in Brooklyn on Wednesday afternoon, according a person who had been briefed on the case. The men, Kareem Ibrahim, Abdul Kadir and Abdel Nur, were charged in the summer of 2007 by the United States attorney in Brooklyn of conspiring with a former airport cargo worker, Russell M. Defreitas, to attack fuel storage tanks and fuel lines at Kennedy...more>

Bell To Be Rung as Names of 9/11 Victims are Read During Church Ceremony

The Village Daily Sun 6/25/2008

The FDNY 343 Memorial Club needs volunteers for its upcoming Sept. 11 memorial ceremony. The program will begin at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 11 at St. Timothy Catholic Community. After a mass, the names of every New York Police Department, Port Authority, Fire Department of New York and Emergency Medical Services worker who died during the events of Sept. 11, 2001, will be read. “We’re going to have a bell, and the bell will be rung for each name of emergency service workers who were killed on 9/11,” said Bob Kane, the president of the memorial club...more>

1st Year of H.E.A.R.T.-felt Thank You from 9/11 First Responders

NY Daily News 6/24/2008

In a heart-rending flash, Fire Department Capt. John Viola lost 14 of his men the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. He spent the next nine months sifting through the smoldering rubble, seeking out the remains of his comrades in Ladder 15. Viola maintained his sanity, reading cards that poured in from children across the country, as he toiled night after night inside the grim pit of Ground Zero. "Now it is time to start giving back," said Viola, 56, who retired in 2002 and lives in Wantagh, L.I. On Thursday, Viola stood with the dozens of men - most of them now retired police commanders, firemen and construction workers - who combed the ruins of the World Trade Center as a team. Together again, they celebrated the first year of their thank you to the world. They are part of H.E.A.R.T 9/11 (Healing Emergency Alert Response Team), a growing nonprofit comprised of Sept. 11 first responders whose aim is to travel the country as an alliance of relief...more>

FDNY: Cable Caused Smoke at Historic Post Office

AP 6/25/2008

A New York City fire official says insulation on an electrical cable caught fire, leading to the evacuation of a historic post office in midtown Manhattan. Deputy Fire Chief John Bley says the fire at the sprawling national landmark building, across from Madison Square Garden, was extinguished when the insulation burned up on the cable. Firefighters responded about 11 p.m. Tuesday to reports of heavy smoke pouring from the James A. Farley U.S. Post Office, which is open 24 hours a day. Eight employees and about 20 customers were evacuated. One firefighter suffered minor injuries. A spokeswoman for Consolidated Edison, which owns the cable, says crews are investigating what happened.

City Questions 9/11 Workers' Claims of Illness

NY Times 6/25/2008

The first detailed review of the medical records of nearly 10,000 ground zero workers who are suing New York City and its contractors suggests that many are not as sick as their lawyers have claimed, attorneys for the city say. The city’s review, based on medical records submitted in federal court by the workers and their lawyers, found that as many as 30 percent of the workers reported nothing more than common symptoms like runny nose or cough. Their records, according to the review, did not indicate that doctors had ever diagnosed a specific disease. In fact, more than 300 workers admitted in court documents that they were not ill at all...more>

Former Firefighters' Influence Prompts Upcoming Memorial Training Classes

Owasso Reporter 6/25/2008

The tentative schedule has several speakers on Saturday, Sept. 13 - including DeMauro, chief Bradd Clark and assistant chief Chris Garrett. The schedule for Sunday, Sept. 14 has plenty of hands on activities/training sessions for the firefighters. The two-day training class with also feature a special guest - New York City firefighter Lt. Ray McCormack. McCormack helped with recovery and cleanup at the World Trade Center site after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Ross said McCormack has written a diary about Sept. 11. McCormack also does several speeches around the country. McCormack is a family friend of Ross and it didn't take too much convincing to get McCormack to come to Owasso...more>

FDNY Busts Six With Fireworks Haul

NY Daily News 6/25/2008

FDNY investigators busted six people hauling $2,000 worth of illegal fireworks into the city after following them from stores in Pennsylvania, officials said Tuesday. Fire marshals observed the suspects with New York license plates leaving Phantom Fireworks in eastern Pennsylvania with the recreational explosives and tailed them until they crossed the George Washington Bridge, the FDNY said. Four men were stopped with about $1,000 in firecrackers, sparklers and bottle rockets, and their 1998 Plymouth Concord was seized, Chief Fire Marshal Robert Byrnes said...more>

Tax Preparer With Staten Island-Based Business Gets Prison, Fine In Tax Scheme

Staten Island Advance 6/24/2008

A retired New York City firefighter and Staten Island-based tax preparer will pay the price for cheating on his own taxes and drafting false returns for others: 27 months in a federal prison and a $50,000 fine. Thomas Keeley, 49, who now lives in New Jersey, was sentenced today in Brooklyn federal court following his guilty plea in November to one count of tax evasion and one count of preparing a false report for a client.
Starting in 1990, Keeley, a former Fire Department lieutenant, ran a tax preparation business out of a home on Clarke Avenue. According to statements made today in court, he typically prepared 5,000 to 7,000 returns per tax season, including many Staten Islanders and firefighters. He charged about $100 per return...more>

FDNY Explains Mask Safety Precautions and Training

Chief-Leader 6/27/2008

In the wake of three firefighter deaths in the past year related to suffocation and smoke inhalation, Fire Department officials June 17 clarified details regarding the self-contained breathing apparatus firefighters use during a City Council hearing. Battalion Chief William Mundy, the FDNY Mask Service Unit head, told the Council's Fire and Criminal Justice Services Committee that enrollees at the Fire Academy go through nearly 200 hours of training with the SCBAs. "We also require biweekly air quality testing; the national standard for this testing is quarterly," said Battalion Chief Mundy. "This is in addition to each firefighter's inspection of his or her own SCBA, which takes place at the beginning of each tour and immediately after the SCBA is used."...more (subscription)>

Cop Rallies Nabe After Death of Boy, 2; Just Wanted to Help His Family

NY Daily News 6/24/2008

Cortez and McGuckin visited all three firehouses in the precinct. The firefighters were just as quick to kick in. The wake was on Friday, and a fire lieutenant presented the grieving family with envelopes containing $750 in addition to what the cops raised to help them through the bleak days ahead. The boy lay in his coffin clad in a white suit and shoes that Cortez had bought at Angel's clothing store. "All my son would talk about is cops and firemen," the mother told Cortez in Spanish. Five of the fire rigs that once thrilled the boy parked outside La Paz as firefighters knelt two at a time before the tiny coffin. The cops did the same and the 40th Precinct provided a floral arrangement in addition to those donated by a local florist. The legendary battle of the badges seemed just so much bunk...more>

Feds Give City $8M To Upgrade Radios of First Responders

Chief-Leader 6/27/2008

The city will receive $7.8 million from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to upgrade its emergency radio system. "Finally the Federal Government will award dedicated interoperability funds to New York, which I proposed in the aftermath of September 11th," Congresswoman Nita Lowey said in a statement. "This is a great victory for first-responders to help ensure they are not left to the same communication tactics used by Paul Revere. Runners relaying messages should never be the method to direct personnel in an emergency due to equipment failures, especially in this time of advanced technology. And we can never again let failed communications devices put our first responders in danger as on September 11th."...more (subscription)>

Crane Probe Zeroing In On Unlicensed Operators

NY Post 6/22/2008

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office is examining dozens of instances of unlicensed workers operating cranes at city construction sites as part of its probe into two fatal crane collapses this year, The Post has learned. The investigation has expanded to include the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, the agency that licenses the hardhats who run the biggest and most dangerous rigs, said a law-enforcement source involved in the probe...more>

At Least 14 Crane Operators Work On 

Construction Site Despite Failing Test

NY Daily News 6/22/2008

At least 14 crane operators who failed a state test of their skills running the monster machines are operating cranes in the city like those involved in two deadly collapses this year, a Daily News probe has found. They are among 21 city-licensed crane operators who obtained state licenses despite failing the hands-on exam, a review of state and city records revealed. Ten of the operators' state licenses were revoked after they failed or refused to take a retest. Four others failed but will be allowed a do-over this fall...more>

Health Department Finds Half of NYC's Child Fire Deaths in Brooklyn

NY Daily News 6/24/2008

They were the youngest victims of the city's worst fires - and half of them were from Brooklyn. Playing with matches or lighters, left home alone or torched by arsonists, 33 kids under the age of 12 perished in Brooklyn fires from 2001 to 2006 - half of the city's total - a recent Health Department study reported. "These deaths were preventable," said Health Department Deputy Commissioner Lorna Thorpe. "Most of them were due to someone leaving a candle unattended, having overloaded outlets, smoking or not having a smoke detector. "These are increasingly tragic, every single one of them," she said. Of the 20 fires, 17 were in poor north and central Brooklyn neighborhoods, such as East New York and Bedford-Stuyvesant...more>

FDNY Honors Hero Firefighter

NY Daily News 6/22/2008

FDNY Capt. Jerry Horton's voice cracked Sunday as he fought in vain to hold back tears as he spoke of Firefighter Daniel Pujdak at a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the young hero's death. Pujdak's fire company, Ladder 146 in Brooklyn, has not stopped grieving for the 23-year-old, who plummeted from the roof of a burning Williamsburg building last June 21, Horton said. "But at the same time, I hope we can always remember to celebrate his life," he said. And that's just what they did. More than 100 relatives and friends crowded into Pujdak's former Greenpoint firehouse to join Mayor Bloomberg and top FDNY brass, who unveiled a memorial plaque honoring Pujdak. "The city and this community will always remember Daniel with gratitude and pride," said Bloomberg. "May God bless his memory, and may God bless the FDNY."...more>

related...

Plaque Dedication Ceremony for Pudjak (watch video)...7online...6/22/2008

Marchers Remember NYC Firefighter Who Perished

Record Online 6/21/2008

The father of a New York City firefighter killed last year in a skyscraper blaze led a downtown rally Saturday to promote better safety standards for firefighters and construction workers. "The fire codes and building codes should be much stricter and more enforceable," said Joseph Graffagnino Sr., whose son, also named Joseph, was one of two firefighters who died battling a blaze at the former Deutsche Bank tower. The building was heavily damaged on Sept. 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center's south tower collapsed into it, leaving a trail of toxic debris....more>

related...

Hundreds Rally In Manhattan for Building, Fire Safety...NY1 News...6/21/2008

9/11 Families Donate Mementos to September 11th Museum

NY Daily News 6/22/2008

An antique cherry wood chair scorched to its springs by a fireball inside a Battery Park City apartment. Family letters and wedding invitations miraculously recovered from the rubble. A $2 bill pulled from a victim's bruised wallet that finally convinced his wife he was never coming home. These are the everyday objects of Sept. 11, 2001, all of which will end up in the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Item by emotional item, the museum's curators are assembling a collection that will bring back all the emotions of the day - fear, rage, heartbreak. The museum, set to open in 2011, will feature well-known items: a pair of five-story tridents from the towers, the fabled Last Beam, the twisted remains of police and fire trucks. There will also be simple objects - a key, an ID card, a photo - that carry an emotional wallop as they relate the horrors, and the miracles, of 9/11. "When people see these everyday items ... that really makes the story hit home," Museum President Joseph Daniels said...more>

My Rides Home Have Never Been the Same

NY Daily News 6/22/2008

I watched one person after another leap from the burning towers that September morning. I must have been even more shaken than I knew, for I felt an electric-like jolt when I took a pastoral drive on another sunny day five years later and suddenly saw some road kill up ahead. I know exactly how shaken I was when I scattered a gritty handful of a dear friend's cremated remains on a moonlit night in Central Park after he was killed in the north tower. And I figured no artifact could ever move me more profoundly than when I held three coins that were recovered from the ruins and found to have traces of his DNA. But I still felt everything stop this week when I gazed upon a complete stranger's wallet among the 9/11 artifacts being collected for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum...more>

Inside A 9/11 Mastermind's Interrogation

NY Times 6/22/2008

In a makeshift prison in the north of Poland, Al Qaeda’s engineer of mass murder faced off against his Central Intelligence Agency interrogator. It was 18 months after the 9/11 attacks, and the invasion of Iraq was giving Muslim extremists new motives for havoc. If anyone knew about the next plot, it was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. The interrogator, Deuce Martinez, a soft-spoken analyst who spoke no Arabic, had turned down a C.I.A. offer to be trained in waterboarding. He chose to leave the infliction of pain and panic to others, the gung-ho paramilitary types whom the more cerebral interrogators called “knuckledraggers.” Mr. Martinez came in after the rough stuff, the ultimate good cop with the classic skills: an unimposing presence, inexhaustible patience and a willingness to listen to the gripes and musings of a pitiless killer in rambling, imperfect English. He achieved a rapport with Mr. Mohammed that astonished his fellow C.I.A. officers...more>

Concrete Testing at Yankee Stadium and Freedom Tower Is Scrutinized

NY Times 6/21/2008

Manhattan prosecutors are investigating whether the leading concrete testing company in the New York area, which has been hired to measure and analyze the strength of the concrete poured at some of the biggest construction projects in the city, failed to do some tests and falsified others, officials involved in the inquiry said on Friday. The investigation has uncovered problems with tests the company conducted on concrete poured over the last two years at the new Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and the foundation of the Freedom Tower in Lower Manhattan, along with as many as a dozen other projects, said several of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing...more>

Hundreds Greet NFL Star As He Completes 9-11 Walk

News8 6/23/2008

Former professional football player George Martin
completed a 3,003-mile cross-country walk Saturday in Embarcadero Marina Park. The walk raised money for emergency workers who've suffered health problems since responding to the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Martin, 55, raised $2 million and a matching amount of medical services in the walk that ended at Embarcadero Marina Park. The former defensive lineman for the New York Giants began his journey last September 16...more>

Billions More Needed to Secure US Embassies

Forbes 6/22/2008

Since Sept. 11, the Bush administration has pumped $4.1 billion into embassy and consulate construction, building 57 facilities that do meet the security specifications. On top of that, the State Department spends about $100 million a year in security upgrades for the more that 16,100 properties it manages around the world. But the officials say even that major effort has not been enough to ensure the safety of U.S. diplomats abroad, especially as construction costs have risen and the dollar has declined against foreign currencies. "It really has not yet put us where we have to be," Richard Shinnick, director of the department's Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, said in an interview. "We have important protective responsibilities." In many cases, that means embassies must be relocated from downtown locations in capitals to outlying areas, even suburbs. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her predecessors have all made the physical security of State Department personnel, particularly in their work places, a priority. But the department's current plans for new construction are unprecedented in scope in both the private and public sectors, with the possible exception of the military. "Nobody else is building at this rate," said Shinnick, a former New York City firefighter and senior diplomatic manager who was brought out of retirement this year to run the department's $14 billion real estate empire...more>

Year after young Bravest's death, parents, FDNY still united by grief

NY Daily News 6/20/2008

They lost a son one year ago Saturday but they have gained a new family. Firefighter Daniel Pujdak fell to his death from a Brooklyn roof while battling a fire last June 21, devastating his parents who had watched with pride as their son achieved his dream of joining the FDNY just two years before. While their grief remains sometimes overwhelming, Pujdak's parents have been comforted by a tremendous outpouring of support from the Greenpoint community in which they have lived for decades and from their son's colleagues in Ladder 146. "We've learned that 'family' goes well beyond blood," said Leo Pujdak, Daniel's father. "The firefighters, especially the men in his house, have an open door for us and they're always checking to see how we're doing." "They have been absolutely wonderful," he said. "My words are so trivial - you'd need a poet to describe how wonderful they've been." ...more>

Car Chaos Hurts 18 - Manhattan Mow-Downs

NY Post 06/21/2008

June 21, 2008 -- Chaos reigned on the streets of Manhattan as out-of-control cars hurtled curbs and smashed into unsuspecting crowds yesterday in three terrifying incidents that left 18 people injured, including one in critical condition. In Midtown, an unlicensed driver who tried to move a friend's double-parked SUV roared onto the sidewalk into a throng of passers-by during rush hour, injuring 10 people, including a 5-year-old boy. "I saw three people under the car," said witness Ralph Hasbani, 23 of the 5 p.m. crash on Seventh Avenue near West 36th Street. "They pulled one woman out right away. She was bleeding from the forehead." At least four onlookers rushed to lift the hulking 2002 Ford Explorer, which was still in drive, to free the trapped people. The driver, Estebannie Sanchez, 23, who had been waiting in the car for a friend shopping in a nearby store, bolted from the scene, but returned about 25 minutes later. He was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and was issued a summons for driving without a license, cops said. 

Governor: World Trade Center Site behind Schedule

New York AP 06/20/2008

New York Gov. David Paterson says the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site is over budget and behind schedule. He's ordered the site's owner to come up with a realistic plan by the end of the month to rebuild it. Paterson has asked the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to determine by June 30 if the latest schedules and budgets "are reliable and achievable." The agency owns the lower Manhattan site. Paterson is the third governor to demand a quicker pace for the project. It has been slowed by political wrangling and passionate arguments about the site's symbolism. Other issues include rising construction costs and the logistics of building so much at once on such a small space.

NY gives benefits to more 9/11 first responders

Gov. David Paterson and state legislators are announcing an agreement to cover additional public workers who were involved in the rescue, recovery and clean-up efforts at the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11 attacks, embracing the unanimous findings of the bipartisan September 11th Worker Protection Task Force. Here’s a report of the findings. Under the agreed-upon legislation, submitted to the Legislature by the Governor, the “presumptive accidental disability retirement benefit” now available to some 9/11 first responders will be extended to additional first responders. ...more>

Tragic FDNY Hero Promoted

NY Post 6/20/2008