Three years ago, FDNY Battalion Chief Joseph Downey was part of a search and rescue unit that worked in Biloxi, Miss., after Hurricane Katrina barreled into the Gulf Coast.
"Entire towns were wiped out," Downey recalled yesterday, as he and more than 30 New York City firefighters and police officers headed south again, this time in anticipation of Hurricane Gustav. Forecasters predicted Gustav would hit the Gulf Coast region tomorrow.
With news that Gustav was expected to swell into a Category 5 hurricane, Downey, 46, of West Islip, said members of his team, named Task Force 1, were preparing for the worst.
"If it hits as a Category 5, we're expecting a tremendous amount of damage," Downey said during a telephone interview as the team traveled near Roanoke, Va.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency activated the first responders on Friday, said Chris Gilbride, a spokesman for New York City's Office of Emergency Management.
"They're experts in search and rescue in confined spaces," Gilbride said.
When the team left yesterday, Gustav was intensifying toward a Category 5 hurricane - the highest - with maximum sustained winds above 155 mph and storm surges 18 feet above normal.
Downey said his team was "excited to go down and help" but also had to be patient. FEMA planned for Task Force 1 to be in Atlanta today and wait for further orders from there...more>
The American Red Cross has opened its shelters across the state, and more than 600 people showed up by Saturday afternoon at Rapides Parish shelters.
But now that Rapides Parish has been declared an impact zone, officials are urging evacuees to continue to travel north.
The 3,500-bed evacuation center at Louisiana State University at Alexandria will be open for Hurricane Gustav response thanks to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and a New York-area unit of the American Red Cross.
More than 45 volunteers from the American Red Cross in Greater New York -- including members of the New York City Fire Department -- showed up at the evacuation center Saturday morning to help set up the dormitory area, Chief Executive Officer Theresa Bischoff said.
"We're here, and this is where we're staying," Bischoff said.
Security officials said the center will handle those who are coming from New Orleans by public bus but also could handle more of the local need for sheltering.
Officials said they are monitoring the situation and it all depends upon Gustav. Use of the completed building for Gustav response was in question earlier in the week due to a lack of furnishing.
After a declaration of emergency by President Bush, FEMA trucks lined the parking lot and unloading area of the evacuation center to provide the basic furnishings needed to house people.
The Red Cross, however, will manage the administrative and logistical aspects of the center, Bischoff said.
"As long as we have people, we're told we will have the supplies we need," Bischoff said...more>
The fire started at about 1:30 a.m. and firefighters had it under control less than an hour later, but two suffered minor injuries in the process of putting out the flames. One civilian was critically injured in the fire. The cause of the fire is under investigation. No further information was available.
Officials in some Gulf Coast states spent the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on Friday gearing up for what could be the biggest threat to the region since Katrina hit in 2005.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin attends a ceremony Friday honoring Hurricane Katrina victims.
Hurricane Gustav is poised to pass near or over the Cayman Islands on Friday night and over western portions of Cuba on Saturday. It may approach the U.S. Gulf Coast by Tuesday morning as a Category 2 or 3 hurricane, the National Hurricane Center said Friday.
"Today, on that third anniversary, we've got to be thinking about the future," Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said. "As we pray for the best, we're going to prepare for the worst,"
Barbour announced Friday that Hurricane Katrina victims living in government-issued trailers or mobile homes along his state's coast will begin evacuating this weekend to prepare for the Gustav's possible arrival.
The process will begin Saturday, with notices going out to people living in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers or mobile homes, as well as people living in more permanent structures known as "Mississippi cottages," he said.
The evacuation will begin in Harrison and Hancock counties on Sunday morning, Barbour said. Evacuation in Jackson County will begin Monday.
About 4,300 families live in FEMA trailers or mobile homes, and 2,800 live in Mississippi cottages, the governor's office said. He said he would urge people living in privately owned mobile homes to evacuate as well.
President Bush declared an emergency in Louisiana on Friday, freeing up federal aid and allowing FEMA to coordinate relief efforts.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has declared a state of emergency and urged residents to update their evacuation plans.
He said residents in certain southern parishes could be asked to leave Friday or Saturday. In Plaquemines Parish, where Hurricane Katrina roared ashore as a Category 3 storm days after its initial landfall in Florida, Parish President Billy Nungesser called for a mandatory evacuation beginning at noon Saturday.
Residents of the community of Grand Isle in Jefferson Parish were urged to begin voluntary evacuations Friday afternoon, and voluntary evacuations for Jean Lafitte, Crown Point, Barataria and areas outside the levee protection system are recommended beginning at noon Saturday, the parish said in a news release.
St. Bernard Parish, which was beginning transport Friday for those who would need assistance, said it expected to call a mandatory evacuation Saturday afternoon...more>
Volunteers joined together by tragedy will travel to Greensburg next week to help the community rebuild.
The New York Says Thank You Foundation, a group that includes 9/11 survivors, is bringing about 200 volunteers to the small south-central Kansas town blown away by an EF-5 tornado last year.
"They're trying to give them back something that will pull them back together the way they were pulled back together in New York," said Deborah Abner, Salvation Army disaster coordinator for Kansas and western Missouri.
Volunteers will begin work Thursday and wrap up Sept. 7 as the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks approaches. Volunteers will be led by New York City firefighters — some of whom previously visited Greensburg — and will include others affected by the attacks. In addition, volunteers from other communities helped by the foundation throughout the nation are expected as they are asked to "Pay it Forward," according to media releases.
Work will center on rebuilding a 14,000-square-foot pavilion on the county 4-H grounds in Greensburg. Volunteers also are to assist in rebuilding the Greensburg Rodeo Club's outdoor arena.
Most people, when hearing the numbers 9/11, can tell you where they were and what they were doing at the exact time they heard the news about a commercial airplane hitting the World Trade Center in New York City.
Peter Hayden, a retired chief of the New York Fire Department and the second chief on the scene at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, will soon share his personal experience with the island community.
On Sept. 10, the part-time Marco resident is scheduled to be the featured speaker at the Marco Island Fire-Rescue Foundation's 9-11-01 Remembrance Luncheon at the Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort.
"It was a huge event," Hayden told the Sun Times in an interview.
He said he knew then it was a situation like no other he had seen.
"It was a difficult day for the FDNY and for the community," Hayden said...more>
A little boy lost his life in a roaring Greenridge house fire last night.
Despite valiant efforts by neighbors, firefighters and paramedics, 2-year-old Jesus Bailey was pronounced dead in Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze. The smoke he'd breathed in stopped his heart, according to FDNY officials.
Four other people escaped the blaze at 69 Woehrle Ave. with minor injuries, including the boy's grandmother, Stacey Mohan-Singh, 44; two teens, and a man in his 30s.
Jesus' mother, Mrs. Mohan-Singh's eldest daughter, wasn't home at the time, according to neighbors and cops.
Two firefighters suffered minor injuries -- of the back and knee, respectively -- and were treated and released at Staten Island University Hospital, Prince's Bay.
No criminality is suspected at this time and fire marshals are investigating the cause of the fire.
Residents say a total of 12 children live in the home, some of them Mrs. Mohan-Singh's children and some her grandchildren.
Ten kids were inside when the blaze broke out at about 7:30 p.m. in the two-story semi-attached house at the corner of Woehrle and Alexander avenues.
Three of the children were inside and seven were playing outside.
"You could see the fire from the door. It was real bad inside and there was no way to get in without a mask," said Eddie Dalessio, 23, who along with a friend -- Tommy Ruggiero, also 23 -- broke out windows in order to gain entry. The brave attempt left Dalessio with an injured right hand...more>
On Tuesday, steel columns will be erected in the northeast corner of the footprint where the North Tower of the World Trade Center once stood. These pieces of steel mark the start of the creation of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Each column -- standing approximately 25 feet tall and weighing nearly four tons -- is a reason to be hopeful that the Memorial can finally progress with a real sense of urgency.
Back in June of this year, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey released an assessment of all the construction projects planned for the World Trade Center site, and every construction timetable was thrown out the window. The Port Authority promised to take the next few months to tackle the challenges of rebuilding the site and to issue "realistic" schedules on the projects by the end of September.
During their period of analysis, the Port Authority said that working with the other World Trade Center site stakeholders -- Silverstein Properties, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the Memorial Foundation and New York City -- they would tackle the overall plan and sort out some current risk factors: incomplete final designs, an inadequate centralized decision-making structure, logistics and staging complexities, and the extensive interdependencies between all of the projects.
The Port Authority said what was needed among the stakeholders were cooperation, compromise, consensus and a willingness to "make tough trade-offs." The assessment seemed to suggest that in light of the challenges and complexity, everyone should accept that no major component of the site could be complete by 9/11/11. This would mean that even after 10 years, the Memorial and Museum will not be completed. This is not right....more>
The city’s fire department presented a major donation to help severely injured veterans in Downtown Brooklyn Thursday.
The FDNY's boxing team presented the Wounded Warriors Project with a check for $10,000 to offer support services to injured vets who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The FDNY’s been right there from day one, saying, ‘You know what? When they come, we're gonna be there for you. We’re gonna go down to Walter Reed, we're gonna thank them for their service,” said Tony Ntellas of the Wounded Warriors Project. “When they come up to New York, we want to be the first ones when these warriors get off the plane to shake their hands."
"We can never rest because we have suffered grave losses in this department,” said Fire Chief Salvatore Cassano. “And we still are giving. And that's a testament to the commitment to the members of the department, not only to serve the department and the city, but to serve the country as well."
Cassano said there are 85 firefighters currently serving overseas in the military.
A smoky fire in an eighth floor bedroom of a Bayside high-rise sent hundreds of residents into the street and one woman to the hospital on recently.
Workers in the Versailles, a 17-story co-op at 18-05 215th Street, were searching the building after residents reported smelling smoke, when they found Pam Prince prostrate at the front door of her apartment shortly after 5 p.m. on Monday, August 25, according to co-op president Fred Blumenfeld.
“The staff knocked on every door in the building,” he said.
Prince was apparently returning from a shopping errand when she opened the door to her residence and was bowled over by a blast of smoke, driven by strong winds
Within minutes, firefighters and Emergency Medical Service (EMS) units arrived in response to the “10-77 High Rise” alarm, “about the equivalent to a second alarm,” according to a firefighter at the scene, which drew 15 pieces of fire apparatus and four EMS trucks.
“A high-rise response is massive because we have to search the building and evacuate people below [the fire] while we fight the fire,” said Mark Ferrar, Division 14 commander for the New York City Fire Department (FDNY). “The high wind was a factor here, but the guys did a great job,” he said...more>
A woman visiting a Brooklyn church said a prayer of thanks Tuesday after surviving a terrifying fall through an elevator shaft without serious injury, her family said.
"She believes in God," said Ismai Davis, 64, the mother of the Florida woman who plunged about 16 feet after she stepped into the empty shaft. "Everything turned out all right."
Margarette Kelly, 40, had recently arrived at the First Triumphant Church of Jesus Christ on Pitkin Ave. in Brownsville for a week-long religious seminar and was staying with her mother and son in a boarding room at the temple.
Authorities said Kelly summoned the elevator and stepped into an abyss when the doors opened about 11:40 a.m.
"She opened the elevator door and fell," said an FDNY source.
"I yelled 'Mommy! Mommy! but she was many feet down - I couldn't see anything," said her son, Shaddon, 13, who witnessed the accident.
Shaddon said his mother responded in a faint voice and he ran to find someone who could call police. Medics responded and rushed Kelly to Brookdale University Hospital, where she was listed in stable condition.
"I'm glad she's doing okay," Shaddon said. Davis said her daughter did not suffer any broken bones and was conscious throughout the ordeal.
Several visitors said church officials told them not to use the elevator because it was out-of-order - but no written warnings were posted.
"I don't know why she tried to use it, but thank God she's okay," said Virginia, a parishioner who declined to give her last name. "We knew for years that the elevator wasn't working."...more>
An 8-year-old kid named Liam watched the two middle-aged firefighter fans arrive in Squad 288 firehouse in Maspeth the other day, one dressed in a blue checked shirt and casual slacks, the other in a red Mets cap with a red checked shirt and a pair of dark shades.
"Is that them?" the kid asked his father.
The men shook hands with younger men that they consider heroes and nodded somberly at a wall bearing 19 names of firefighters from this single FDNY facility that perished on Sept 11, 2001.
"We wanted to let these guys know that we're in awe of what they do every day," said Tom (Terrific) Seaver, who wore the now retired No. 41 when he hurled the once slapstick Mets to their first Amazin' World Series Championship in 1969.
"Fans cheered people like me and Tom and called us celebrities or stars," said Darryl Strawberry, who used to wallop baseballs with a legendary swing into the cheap seats of Shea. "People throw around the word hero a little too loosely. I'm no hero. These guys are heroes. Those 19 guys on the wall were true heroes."...more>
Seven years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, local TV stations are again gearing up for live coverage of the reading of the victims' names. Though plans are still being firmed up, every station in town is preparing to carry the ceremony live and uninterrupted. "The plan is, we are planning to go up and stay on until the ceremony ends," Ch. 7 news director Kenny Plotnik said Tuesday. A year ago, Ch. 7 was going to move its live coverage of the event to its digital channel and to the Internet. But after victims' families found out and complained to the station, the decision was reversed...more>
History, in a special using first-person video, will air 102 Minutes That Changed America on the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks, officials said Monday.
The special will run Sept. 11 at 9 p.m. without commercial interruption. The program incorporates footage from more than 100 individual sources, carefully pieced together in chronological order as a kind of permanent historical archive for future generations to see.
This special presentation will be followed by I-Witness TO 9/11, an 18-minute documentary short featuring interviews with some of the people who contributed their 9/11 footage to this project. This piece provides context and background to some of the most harrowing footage from the perspective of the people who recorded it.
102 Minutes That Changed America presents amateur and professional footage, woven together without narration or commentary, to provide the viewer with an immersive and emotional experience. The documentary records and captures that historical morning as it happened and the way it was experienced—from people’s initial bewilderment that a plane could slam into these iconic skyscrapers on such a clear sunny day to the sudden, awful recognition that America was under attack...more>
Two hero firefighters saved a Queens family from the choppy waters off Breezy Point Sunday, then helped a fisherman whose finger was severed by an anchor.
Firefighters Robert Senatore, 44 and Firefighter Dean Tartaro, 41, of Brooklyn's Marine Co. 3, plucked the family to safety just two months after they were hailed for saving another family from a boat off Coney Island.
"It has been a busy day," Senatore said. "A lot of bad things happen quick." Senatore and Tartaro spent most of their day watching the Palaguachi family on the Breezy Point jetty as the high tide washed away the portions of the rocky outcropping from under their feet.
Senatore told the family they would have to wait three hours before it was safe enough to leave the jetty.
But Christian Palaguachi, 15, and Iseral Gualpa, 26, ignored the firefighters' warning and tried to slosh back to shore. Christian's father ran into the water from the beach, trying to help.
"The waves were hitting them," Senatore said. "They were getting blasted."...more>
A cross made of steel from the World Trade Center and mounted atop a platform shaped like the Pentagon now stands outside the Shanksville, Pa., firehouse - forever linking the tragic events of 9/11.
Hundreds of firefighters riding motorcycles escorted the beam from New York to Shanksville, where hijacked Flight 93 crashed into a field, killing all 40 people onboard.
"We wanted to find a home for this steel," said Paddy Concannon, who retired from the FDNY shortly before the World Trade Center attacks but spent countless hours digging through the rubble for survivors.
"This is an effort on our part to tie the three events together: The World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville," he said.
More than 2,750 people were killed when two hijacked planes crashed into the twin towers. Another plane crashed into the Pentagon, killing 184 people.
The 2-ton, 14-foot beam, which was pulled from the rubble of the north tower, was driven 300 miles from Brooklyn's Floyd Bennett Field to the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Co.
"I couldn't have dreamed this would turn out any better, all the brotherhood coming down from New York and New Jersey and showing up here to pay their respects," said Shanksville Fire Chief Terry Shaffer...more>
Journalist Michael Daly’s long-awaited book on the life and death of Father Mychal Judge, the first reported fatality on 9/11, is in many respects the work of a lifetime. Part eulogy, part celebration, it’s the most intimate portrait of the beloved fire chaplain and the Irish American community he loved yet written. CAHIR O’DOHERTY talks to Daly about the inspirational life of a man many already consider a saint.
THERE may be as many Father Mychal Judges as there are people who remember him. Try to assemble the strands of his life and you’ll be amazed by how varied they are, yet one theme remains — Father Mike was known and loved in every borough of New York City, by rich and poor, firemen and clergy, parade organizers and protestors, macho men and drag queens, gay and straight, and all of them Irish.
Working as a top columnist at the New York Daily News for over two decades, Michael Daly knows all about the tribes of New York Irish, be they orthodox, dissenter or reformed, at least as well as Mychal Judge did, which makes him the ideal chronicler of Judge’s life and work.
Daly’s own father was born outside Dublin but originally hailed from Cork, and his mother was a Canadian of Irish extraction. It’s a background that has allowed Daly to interpret between occasionally competing strands of Irish life in the metropolis, and this he does with a rare degree of clarity...more>
An award-winning children’s book about the life and ministry of Brooklyn-born Father Mychal F. Judge will be at the center of two events commemorating the 7th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks. Kelly Ann Lynch, author of the best-seller, He Said Yes, The Story of Father Mychal Judge, will be signing copies at the 9/11 memorial exhibit at St. Paul’s Chapel and at the Park Slope Barnes & Noble store on 7th Avenue.
Father Mychal Judge, OFM, a member of the Franciscan order and a FDNY chaplain, had rushed downtown from his home at the Friary of St. Francis of Assisi Church in Midtown Manhattan, and was in the process of giving last rites to some of his fallen comrades in the Fire Department when falling debris from the collapsed World Trade Center towers hit and killed him...more>
Nine retired New York City firefighters stood tall and pulled their welcome banner taut as 346 motorcyclists sailed through the toll booth near Easton on Saturday morning.
The motorcycle cavalry, headed for Shanksville with a unique 9/11 memorial, included active and retired firefighters. They honked at their brothers on the side of Interstate 78 and pumped their fists in the air as Angel Carrero of Bangor and the other retirees saluted back.
''I get emotional talking about 9/11,'' said Carrero, a 25-year veteran who worked in the only responding fire station that did not lose a firefighter that day. ''I can't. I'll start crying.''
The 311-mile trip to western Pennsylvania was organized by retired Brooklyn firefighter Patrick Con-cannon. It was as much a fundraiser for the Fire Family Transport Foundation and the Wounded Warrior Project as it was a delivery run...more>
The FDNY report on the Deutsche Bank blaze that killed Firefighters Joseph Graffagnino Jr. and Robert Beddia is in the hands of the Manhattan district attorney. World enough and time enough to hold criminally liable all those who sent the two men into a deathtrap.
Be advised we have no water in the lines up here yet. Ok, Cap. There's no water in these lines. ...
Meanwhile, though, New Yorkers might try to envision how the FDNY once more answered the call, under hellish conditions, on Aug. 18, 2007.
It's getting pretty
bad up here, Chief.
Heavy smoke, heavy fire.
...
Try to envision courage
in the face of mortal
danger.
I'm in the
stairwell. I need help.
Think what it's like to
be snared in a sealed
maze of flame and smoke.
I'm lost...running
out of air.
Think of self-sacrifice
and desperate attempts
to save others.
I have an
unconscious fireman....
Think of the damnable
frustration of knowing
that firemen are
disoriented and dying
and that there's no
water to save them.
Listen, I want a
roll call. Do we have a
roll call finished up
there? I don't give a
s--- about the building.
I give a s--- about the
guys. Do we have a roll
call? Do we know who's
missing?
Then think about the
fact that New York
firefighters, so badly
betrayed Aug. 18, 2007,
place themselves in
harm's way, day in and
day out.
Here is the Halligan tool: a lightweight crowbar-like device used by firefighters to pry open locked doors, smash windows and punch holes in walls.
It hangs on a truck’s side at the headquarters of Ladder Company 1 and Engine Company 7, on Duane Street in Lower Manhattan. And as Firefighter John McConnachie pulls it from the rig on Friday and lifts its 8 ½ pounds up to the height of his chest — like an extension of his arm — he explains its place in the city’s long history of firefighting ingenuity...more>
In frantic, confused
radio dispatches from
inside a burning toxic
skyscraper near ground
zero last August,
firefighters made a
series of desperate
pleas for help as they
encountered boarded-up
stairwells and a broken
water pipe, got lost in
the smoke and ran out of
air.
They had to saw through
wood to get up the
stairs and run a hose up
the side of the building
from a hydrant on the
ground; some ended up
jumping from windows to
escape.
"We're on 17 but we
ain't going much past
the stairway," one
firefighter said from
the floor where the Aug.
18, 2007, blaze began.
"There's fire up here,
no water, ah, we gotta
stay on air the whole
time here too. So we
ain't gonna stay up here
too long."...more>
The Fire Department says nine firefighters have been
taken to hospitals after an apartment building blaze
in upper Manhattan, but their injuries appear to be
minor. Firefighters say one civilian also was hurt
and treated at the scene of Friday's fire on
Hillside Avenue, near the Inwood neighborhood. It
took more than 140 firefighters nearly an hour and a
half to gain control of the three-alarm blaze,
reported shortly after 2:30 p.m. It began on the
first floor of a six-story building. The cause is
under investigation.
As we
approach the seven-year anniversary
of the 9/11 World Trade Center
attacks, follow-up studies by NIH's
National Institute of Environmental
Health Sciences and other
organizations are showing that for
many of those who aided in rescue
and recovery efforts, physical and
psychological ailments continue. A
May 2008 NIEHS study notes, for
example, that of the thousands of
workers exposed to hazardous
environmental conditions and
psychological trauma during the
tragedy, 11.1 percent have reported
suffering from post-traumatic stress
disorder. And according to this
week's Health Commentary, an
additional 9 percent are clinically
depressed, 5 percent suffer panic
disorders, and 62 percent have
substantial stress reactions...more>
A flag-draped, cross-shaped
piece of structural steel from
the North Tower of the World
Trade Center will be carted
across New Jersey today on its
way to a new memorial in
Shanksville, Pa.
The cross will be carried on a
flatbed truck and escorted by
hundreds of motorcycles as it
travels across the state from
the Outerbridge Crossing to
Route 440 south, to Route 287
north, to Route 78 west and on
across Pennsylvania to a
firehouse near the spot where
United Airlines Flight 93
crashed on Sept. 11, 2001...more>
A piece of steel from the World Trade Center is
being given to the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Co.
and will be dedicated at 10 a.m. Sunday. The service
will be held at the fire hall. Shanksville fire
Chief Terry Shaffer was contacted about a year ago
by retired FDNY Lieutenant Patrick Concannon and his
friend, Mike Angelastro, who is retired from the Air
Force, about donating the steel. “It's a good way to
remember,” Shaffer said. Concannon owns an
excavating company and responded on Sept. 11, 2001,
to the World Trade Center with equipment to dig some
of his fellow firefighters out of the rubble. He was
given three pieces of steel to keep. One of the
pieces of steel was given to Camp Lejeune in North
Carolina...more>
5:01:59 p.m. - "I got a member down. We're
trying to get him out of here
on the 14th floor. His PASS alarm is going off, non-responsive."
NY Daily News 8/21/2008
Chaos reigned - and killed.
Even as panicked firefighters cried for help
as they ran out of air in the smoky,
maze-like upper floors of the Deutsche Bank
tower, building supervisors assured their
colleagues on the ground that its standpipe
could deliver, an FDNY internal review says.
Little did they know the standpipe was
severed - and that it was just part of a
lethal combination of neglect and error that
led to the deaths of two firefighters last
Aug. 18.
"I'm lost. I'm trying to exit on the charged
hoseline, running out of air," said one
unidentified firefighter in the radio
transcripts released as part of the FDNY's
long-awaited report.
That cry for help came at 4:48 p.m.,
followed 30 seconds later with a panicked,
"I'm in the stairwell, I need help."
Minutes later, the radio calls - some of
which were not immediately heard because of
unauthorized continued radio chatter - grew
more urgent.
"Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Engine...Mayday!Mayday!"
yelled one firefighter at 5:10 p.m. "Engine
3 with a Mayday. I have an unconscious
fireman."...more>
The FDNY yesterday released the re sults of
an inquiry into the fatal blaze at the
former Deutsche Bank building last year that
killed firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph
Graffagnino.
It was a fact-packed tome, rich in detail -
but utterly devoid of any answers to the
only truly relevant question:
Who dropped the ball?
Beddia and Graffagnino, responding to a fire
on the 14th floor of the 9/11-scarred
structure, rushed in with little clue as to
what they'd find, only to discover - too
late - that there was no water to fight the
fire (a standpipe had been cut) and that
exit stairwells were sealed off.
The report says they were also hindered by
operational mishaps that included
malfunctioning radios and general command
confusion.
(And, inexplicably, workers at the site
waited 13 minutes after the blaze started
before calling 911.)
Clearly, there's plenty of tactical blame to
go around, as there usually is in such
circumstances.
But the Deutsche Bank tragedy is at
least as much about strategic
failure as about mistakes made during the
actual event.
And when it comes to the responsibility that
accrues to the top FDNY brass, the report
goes silent.
The Fire Department had failed to inspect
the building for months before the
blaze - and had no established plan to fight
a fire at the site in the first place.
Whose fault was that?
Again, sad to say, you won't find out in
yesterday's recounting.
The report "is not about affixing blame,"
insists Fire Commissioner Nicolas Scoppetta
- but rather about learning what a spokesman
called the "lessons" of the blaze.
Which is what he and others have been saying
for a year now.
And probably what they'll be saying a year
from now.
But when it comes to "lessons," the first
must be that actions - or the lack thereof -
by top officials have consequences.
In the
wake of last year's deadly Deutsche Bank fire, the city is
considering whether to change its policy and require all
firefighters to leave a dangerous situation when their supervisor's
air supply runs out.
"It is being considered," said Francis X. Gribbon, a spokesman for
the Fire Department of New York.
Current FDNY policy allows supervisors with a depleted air supply to
leave a situation "immediately dangerous to life and health" and for
subordinates to remain if another supervisor takes over, Gribbon
said.
The review of air supply procedures is one of 32 recommendations
about safety, emergency and inspection practices that the FDNY put
forward yesterday in a special report about the Aug. 18, 2007, blaze
at 130 Liberty St. Firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino
were found unconscious on the 14th floor and died of smoke
inhalation...more>
Three
colorful thank you cards were given to firefighters on August 20
with six words printed in a child’s handwriting: “Thank you for
saving my life.”
Duaa
Al Ghaithi, 6, wrote them to the men who rescued her in October
2007, after a gas explosion tore through her family’s Harlem
apartment. She received internal and external burns covering 60
percent of her body and lost three fingers in the blast, forcing her
to spend 10 months in the hospital and undergo grueling physical
therapy and several surgeries.
Her
sister Lina, 3, was blinded in the explosion and received serious
burns, as did her sisters Twka, 5, and Afaf, 1. Her mother, Alouf
Hassan, tragically lost her life in the blast.
“Last
time I saw you, you were wearing a hat and mask,” Duaa said to her
rescuer, Firefighter John Jacovina from Ladder 14. He was among the
many firefighters who reunited with her and her family outside their
temporary home at the Convent Avenue Family Shelter in Harlem.
She
and her sisters, each still wearing nylon compression garmets to
protect their skin, showered them with hugs, kisses, high-fives and
deep-hearted thank yous.
“This
is the best thing anyone has ever done for me,” the girls’ father,
Rassas Al Ghaithi, said through a translator, giving each
firefighter a long embrace. “I know the work of firefighters is
risky, but you should know that you have done something special. You
saved my family.”...more>
“Our take-home message today is the reason for the collapse of
World Trade Center 7 is no longer a mystery,” Dr. Sunder said at a
news conference at the institute’s headquarters. “It did not
collapse from explosives or fuel oil fires.”
NY Times 8/21/2008
Fires in the 47-story office tower at the
edge of the World Trade Center site
undermined floor beams and a critical
structural column, federal investigators
concluded on Thursday, as they attempted to
curb still-rampant speculation that
explosives caused the building’s collapse on
Sept. 11, 2001.
No one died when the tower, 7 World Trade
Center, tumbled, as the estimated 4,000
office workers there at the time had
evacuated before it gave way, nearly seven
hours after the second of the twin towers
came down.
But the collapse of 7 World Trade Center —
home at the time to branch offices of the
Central Intelligence Agency, the Secret
Service and the Giuliani administration’s
emergency operations center — is cited in
hundreds of Web sites and books as perhaps
the most compelling evidence that an insider
secretly planted explosives, intentionally
destroying the tower...more>
Recently the NYC Fire
Department said that its’ multi-million dollar campaign
to diversify their ranks has paid off. More
than 20,000 people have applied during this round of
recruitment. The FDNY only holds recruitment drives once
every four years.
It’s important to know that there are laws in place to
protect the rights of our city’s bravest. Those laws not
only make sure the firefighters have the best in terms
of equipment but they also require that all buildings in
the city meet fire safety standards so as to prevent
unnecessary injury.
Here’s an example of a firefighter being protected by
the law –even though he was engaged in a dangerous job.
Firefighter “Frank” was 36 years old, in great shape. He
was responding to a fire in an abandoned building in the
Sugar Hill section of Manhattan. In the course of
fighting the blaze, Frank was on an exterior staircase
which collapsed causing him to fall about 10 feet.
As a result of the fall, the heads of Frank’s hips were
damaged and there were additional splits and fissures in
the surrounding cartilage and bone structure. Frank
underwent hip replacement surgery, followed by six
months of physical therapy, three-times a week. It was
discovered that the building owners were issued four
building-code violations prior to the fire for failing
to properly seal the building and maintain the
staircase. A special law enacted to protect firefighters
allowed Frank to bring a case on the basis of the
building code violations. The lawsuit was successful and
Frank deservingly received substantial compensation for
his injuries...more>
Walkie-talkies failed, and critical calls for help went unheard.
Men were lost in the confusion. One firefighter’s radio problems
forced him to crawl to the building’s edge to report that two
imperiled colleagues — Robert Beddia, 53, and Joseph Graffagnino, 33
— were trapped by stairwells that had been sealed off. Both men were
killed.
NY Times 8/21/2008
Contractors
tearing down the contaminated former Deutsche Bank building in Lower
Manhattan never had a formal demolition permit, even though they
were undertaking one of the most complicated efforts ever to
dismantle a skyscraper.
When a fire broke out last Aug. 18 at the
tower, it took roughly 80 minutes to get
water on the flames, in part because workers
there waited some 13 minutes to call 911 and
then gave firefighters inaccurate
information about whether emergency
equipment at the site was working.
And communication lapses further disrupted
the firefighting response. Walkie-talkies
failed, and critical calls for help went
unheard. Men were lost in the confusion. One
firefighter’s radio problems forced him to
crawl to the building’s edge to report that
two imperiled colleagues — Robert Beddia,
53, and Joseph Graffagnino, 33 — were
trapped by stairwells that had been sealed
off. Both men were killed.
Those are among the dozens of findings by a
team of investigators who were enlisted by
the New York Fire Department to conduct a
formal inquiry into the deadly fire,
according to people who have been briefed on
the departmental investigation or have seen
its findings. Those people said the report
issued by investigators — which has not been
publicly released — finds fault or concern
with many aspects of the building’s
demolition and the response to the fire.
The report, presented on Wednesday to fire
union officials in a tightly controlled
meeting at Fort Totten in Queens, will be
turned over to the office of the Manhattan
district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau. His
office has undertaken a broad criminal
inquiry into the fire at the high-rise
building, which was being simultaneously
decontaminated and dismantled, floor by
floor, after being damaged on Sept. 11,
2001, and contaminated by toxic substances.
Mr. Morgenthau’s office, which has been
presenting evidence to a grand jury for
months, is considering criminally charging
the city as part of its inquiry into the
fire that left the two firefighters dead,
according to people who have been briefed on
the inquiry.
After the death of a firefighter, the Fire
Department always empanels a team to study
any problems that might have contributed to
the death.
This team found the Deutsche Bank fire to
have been an operational nightmare,
according to those who have seen or heard
its findings. The building, originally 41
stories but torn down to its 26th floor when
the fire took hold, was wrapped in heavy
mesh to trap construction debris. Thick
plastic drapes were hung from the walls to
contain asbestos and other contaminants.
Stairwells were sealed with plywood and
plastic. The fire burned those materials,
spewing impenetrable black smoke that choked
the teams of firefighters as they twisted
through a maze of narrow construction
barricades.
The investigators do not fix on any specific
problem as solely responsible for the deaths
of the two firefighters...more>
The
motto of the U.S. Navy's newest warship, New York, is "Never
forget." And it's unlikely the men and women who built it ever will.
After all, the ship's bow was once seven tons of twisted steel from
the World Trade Center. The salvaged metal arrived at Amite Foundry
& Machine, just north of New Orleans, in 2003. "The hair stood up on
the back of my neck when I thought of all the people who lost their
lives," remembers foundry worker Junior Chavers. Chavers and his
coworkers reverently melted the pieces in the foundry's furnace,
their eyes often filled with tears.
The molten steel was poured into a mold for the bow stem, the front
of the ship that cuts through the water. Next, shipbuilders at
nearby Northrop Grumman took over.
Almost half of the New York had
been built when Hurricane Katrina hit the shipyard, but
the work never stopped. "The people of New York didn't
stop rebuilding their city, and we didn't stop
constructing their ship," says supervisor Mike McTranmer.
Adds company president Mike Petters, "It's personal for
this shipyard. And it's personal to each man and woman
who laid his or her hands on this ship."
Based in Norfolk, Virginia, the New York will be part of
an antiterrorism Expeditionary Strike Force. "Some
people wondered why we wanted to put the steel in a
warship," says Lee Ielpi, a retired New York City
firefighter whose son Jonathan, also a firefighter, died
on 9/11. "The message it sends as it cuts through the
water is that we are a free country and we cherish our
freedoms. Our forefathers fought hard for us, and we
will, too, if we have to."
A TEAM of New York
firefighters will be guests of
honour at Anfield for the return leg
of Liverpool’s Champions League
clash against Standard Liege.
The firefighters are in Liverpool
for the World Firefighters Games 08
(WFG), which starts on Monday.
By the time they watch Liverpool on
Wednesday, they could have their own
trophy for the football event of the
games.
The arrival of the firefighters will
be particularly poignant due to
Liverpool’s age-old ties with New
York.
Liverpool was one of the first to
offer condolences to the city
following the world trade centre
attacks.
And at a Champions League home game
against Portuguese side Boavista, at
Anfield, on the evening of September
11, 2001, the crowd observed a
minute’s silence.
The New York Fire Department, who
lost one of their star players in
the World Trade Center attacks, has
since grown close ties with
Liverpool, having had donations from
the Merseyside Fire Department and
football training from Liverpool FC
in 2003.
The WFG will last just over a week
and see over 3,000 competitors from
more than 30 countries taking
part...more>
(update: the full story will air
tomorrow night, Thursday @ 6:30pm)
The
FDNY SE-RATS (SgtEddie-RyanAssistanceTeam)
will be featured tonight at 6:30pm on ABC World News Tonight with
Charles Gibson. As written by Bobby Halton from Fire Engineering
Magazine;
" Eddie Ryan is an American hero, he is a part of the
NEXT Greatest Generation of American who are manning our
firehouses and our military. Eddie is the son of a marine
who in June 2002, after graduating high school immediately
enlisted in the Marines for a four-year hitch. One month
later, he hit boot camp. In September that year, he left for
Iraq, manning a machine gun. He fought in
Nasariya and
Ramadi, 70 miles northwest of
Bagdhad. On April 13, Eddie was shot twice in his
head, once in his lower jaw and once above his eye. Eddie
was severely wounded and suffered a brain injury. Now,
because prayer is going strong for our American hero, Eddie
is recovering and doing well."
Watch
what the brothers in the FDNY are doing to help Eddie, the real
heroes recognize other real heroes, not because they are different
because in their world, they are not...
Young Ron was honoring his father, his legacy, and
the men of the Special Forces,
by reminding us all of the very real cost of
freedom.
Fay Observer 8/20/2008
You
know that you have been in the military a long time when teammates
of yours or your spouses have children that are now in the military.
This has been the case for us for some time now. We have attended
two graduation ceremonies over the past two months. Both have been
graduations from the Special Forces Qualification Course, and both
graduates have had fathers that have served with my husband.
First
let me say that the ceremonies we attended were exceptionally well
put together. Sgt. Maj. Sinko, or as I call him, Bobby, has really
given these young men the honor they, and their families, deserve.
It is clear that his 28 years of service are well reflected in his
attention to detail. Thank you Sgt. Maj. Sinko for giving these
ceremonies, and everything else you do, the respect they deserve.
Just
last week we stood in the rain and watched the Regimental First
Formation. This ceremony comes the day before the graduation and
marks the official “donning of the Green Beret.” This is the
official entry into the Special Forces for these young men. My
husband and I stood amongst other friends and family all there to
honor and celebrate their graduate...more>
If you
live near Interstate 287 or Interstate 78 and you're roused by early
morning thunder Saturday, Aug. 23, don't necessarily look for rain.
It's probably the sound of hundreds of motorcycles, fire
trucks and emergency vehicles escorting a memorial cross
constructed out of steel beams taken from the remains of the
World Trade Center. The steel cross is being transported
from Brooklyn to its eventual permanent location at the
Shanksville Volunteer Fire Company near the Pennsylvania
Sept. 11, 2001, crash site of United Air Lines Flight 93.
"All told there should be about 1,000 motorcycles," said
retired Air Force staff sergeant Mike Angelastro, one of the
lead organizers of the Iron and Steel — New York City to
Shanksville Run.
"Cycles are joining us in New York, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania, all along the run," Angelastro said. "We have
people coming from far as Georgia for this."
Eugene Stolowski is one of four FDNY firefighters who were
injured in January 2005 when they jumped from the
fourth-floor window of a Bronx building in a fire that took
the lives of two other firefighters.
Stolowski now volunteers for the FDNY Fire Family Transport
Foundation, a nonprofit, all-volunteer organization which
provides transportation to the families of injured, ill or
deceased New York City firefighters and is handling the
memorial transport.
"The memorial is a cross section of steel with the letters
WTC welded to it to represent the Trade Center buildings,"
Stolowski said. "The base was built out in Shanksville in
the shape of the Pentagon, and the cross will be mounted on
it there."
Stolowski said the escort run was the idea of foundation
head Lt. Patrick Concannon, and that everyone has jumped on
board to be a part of it...more>
The
Manhattan DA wants contractors and private safety inspectors working
on the Deutsche Bank demolition to face homicide charges for the
towering inferno that took the lives of two firefighters one year
ago, The Post has learned.
The
indictments - if handed up by a grand jury investigating the deadly
blaze - would, for the first time, hold individuals criminally
responsible for the deaths of Joseph Graffagnino and Bobby Beddia
DA
Robert Morgenthau's prosecutors are eyeing officials with the
demolition contractor, John Galt Corp., and inspectors the company
hired over their failure to make sure demolition of the toxic
building at 130 Liberty St. was done safely and in accordance with
city rules, sources said.
Authorities have said there was a slew of safety problems at the
building abutting Ground Zero, most glaringly a dismantled standpipe
that left firefighters without water when they responded to the
cigarette-sparked blaze.
"I'd
like to see someone pay for what happened," said Graffagnino's
widow, Linda, at a memorial at Engine 24/Ladder 5 yesterday honoring
the firefighters on the anniversary of the blaze.
New York marked the one-year anniversary of
the Deutsche Bank building with a memorial
ceremony for Firefighters Joseph Graffagnino
Jr. and Robert Beddia - along with fresh
evidence that they were fatally betrayed.
Safety reports uncovered by the Daily News
revealed that six small fires had broken out
in the hulking structure in the two months
before Graffagnino and Beddia lost their
lives in a horrific inferno.
Ruined and contaminated by asbestos and
other toxins on 9/11, the tower was being
dismantled in 2007. Sparks from acetylene
torches touched off the sporadic fires, none
of which was reported to the FDNY...more>
There is some suspicion that they were steered away
from being diligent because of a desire by someone high up in city
government to get the building quickly cleared away so that new
development could begin on the site.
The Chief 8/22/2008
No
sooner had the City Council approved a bill ending the requirement
that the city Buildings Commissioner be either a licensed Engineer
or a Registered Architect than Mayor Bloomberg took advantage of the
greater discretion, appointing Robert LiMandri to the post the
following day.
Mr.
LiMandri is an engineer but lacks a professional license. He had
been more vigilant about Buildings Department practices, with a
heavy emphasis on inspections, since being given the job on an
acting basis four months ago after Patricia Lancaster resigned under
fire...more>
Two firefighters were injured yesterday while fighting a fire at an
East Side homeless shelter that serves as the main processing hub
for all single homeless men in the city, authorities said.
Around
1:30 p.m., some garbage caught fire in the basement of the Bellevue
Men's Shelter, at the corner of 30th Street and First Avenue, a fire
department spokesman said...more>
Monday August 18, 2008
"I'm so angry that this was allowed to happen,
[and] we want justice," said Beddia Crocco. "I want them more than
embarrassed — I want them hurt."
It was
a year ago today that firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph
Graffagnino - effectively abandoned on the 14th floor of the old
Deutsche Bank building at Ground Zero - gave their lives in the
service of New York City.
In the
proudest tradition of the FDNY, they had rushed swiftly into the
burning structure - unaware that exit stairwells had been blocked
and a standpipe cut by workers taking down the 9/11- wrecked
building.
Trapped, with no water to fight the blaze and with their airpacks
exhausted, the two men slowly suffocated.
It was
a horrific, and wholly preventable, tragedy - and yet none of those
responsible for the deaths have even been identified, let alone held
to account.
There
was supposed to have been a detailed firefighting plan in
place, and there were supposed to have been regular safety
inspections of the building - both FDNY responsibilities.
But
there was no plan. There had been no inspections -
and yet Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta still has his job...more>
A hot new 2009 calendar full of strapping
New York firefighters is about to hit the
shelves. But this time there's one
difference. You still get the abs, lats,
pecs, biceps and triceps — but the FDNY
hunks will be incognito, their faces
shadowed or concealed by the wide brims of
their hats.
Fans of the annual fireman photo shoots will
remember the scandal over the 2008 FDNY
calendar. Coverboy Michael Biserta showed up
in full-frontal footage that had been taped
for "Guys Gone Wild" before he joined Ladder
131 in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Sales of the
calendar skyrocketed, but Fire Commissioner
Nicholas Scoppetta banned future editions...more>
The cascading waterfall design for the national
Sept. 11 memorial and museum is aptly named
Reflecting Absence because like other major projects
at Ground Zero, it won't be completed in time for
the 10th anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks.
"What we've said very clearly is that we are
committed to having the memorial publicly available
by the 10th anniversary," said Port Authority
spokesman Steve Coleman. "Beyond that, we are
working as hard as we can to advance the memorial as
quickly as possible."
"Publicly available" means trying to complete a
tree-filled plaza, where victims' families can
gather for the anniversary, he said. The museum's
doors, however, won't be open or even on hinges by
then.
"In our view, it is absolutely necessary to have the
memorial open to public for the 10th anniversary,"
said Joe Daniels, president of the memorial and
museum.
"Open to the public," he said, should mean
permanently open...more>
Special thanks are due to unit members Daniel Bergen
and Robert Labas
Staten Island Advance 8/18/2008
A.
Romi Cohn has neighbors and the FDNY marine unit to thank for
keeping his fishing boat afloat.
Cohn,
of Eltingville, received a call that his 23-foot-long fishing boat
moored about 300 feet from his home in Atlantic Village was sinking
at about noon on Aug. 10.
At the
time, Cohn was at a speaking engagement in Lakewood, N.J., for his
book "The Youngest Partisan," which he co-authored with Dr. Leonard
Ciacco from the College of Staten Island.
The
book tells how the Nazis invaded Cohn's native Czechoslovakia when
he was 10. Other family members were sent to concentration camps but
Cohn became a fugitive and fighter with the resistance group.
"I put
down my microphone and the cell phone rang," Cohn said.
Film
producer Julius Nasso was among the neighbors who phoned to let Cohn
know about the problem.
"I was
out of town so there was nothing I could do," Cohn said, adding that
he expected to face a sunken boat when he returned to Staten Island.
The
older boat was sinking because pumps thatwere supposed to remove
seeping water weren't working properly.
The
marine Fire Department unit stationed at Mansion Marina in Great
Kills spent a couple of hours pumping out the water. It transported
the boat to the marina...more>
“People should go to jail for this,” Graffagnino
said. “Hitting a millionaire with a fine is [B.S.]. You were
[behind] this, you could have stopped it. You should pay.”
Joseph
Graffagnino Sr. never spoke with his son about the dangers of
firefighting.
They
talked about how much Joseph Graffagnino Jr. loved his job at the
Engine 24/Ladder 5 firehouse, and they laughed over the practical
jokes the firefighters played on each other — but they never spoke
about the mazes of burning buildings, the dark billowing smoke, the
oxygen tanks that run out of air.
“You
try to block that out of your head,” the elder Graffagnino said in
an interview last week. “You don’t want to think about that. You’re
always afraid of the phone call in the middle of the night.”
As it
turned out, the phone call came during the day, when the father was
at church.
It was
one year ago, Sat., Aug. 18, 2007, and the Deutsche Bank building
across from the World Trade Center site was in flames. More than 270
firefighters responded to the asbestos-contaminated building, which
was damaged on 9/11 and was in the process of being cleaned and
demolished.
Where
firefighters expected staircases, they found plywood barriers. Where
they looked for windows, they found plastic sheeting. And at the
standpipe, where they expected torrents of water to battle the
blaze, they found not even a trickle, because the standpipe was
broken and it had not been inspected.
Firefighters Graffagnino Jr., 33, and Robert Beddia, 53, died of
cardiac arrest when their oxygen tanks ran out, leaving them only
carbon monoxide to breathe. Graffagnino left behind his parents,
wife, 4-year-old daughter and infant son. Beddia was divorced and
left behind two older brothers and two younger sisters.
For
Graffagnino Sr., 60, the approach of the one-year anniversary of his
son’s death stirs memories and emotions that had not yet settled.
“I
just want to get it over with,” Graffagnino said. “The wound is
always open…. It never really goes away.”...more>
Aides
to the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, have
called the investigation of last summer’s deadly fire at the former
Deutsche Bank building at ground zero one of the most complex their
office has ever undertaken.
Prosecutors from the Rackets Bureau have
sifted through more than three million
documents and interviewed about 100 people,
many of whom have testified before a grand
jury — one that has heard evidence twice a
week for about nine months.
Mr. Morgenthau’s investigators believe,
according to people briefed on the case,
that negligence by city agencies — from the
Buildings Department’s failure to ensure
that a vital standpipe was maintained and
tested at the former bank tower, to the lack
of safety inspections by the Fire Department
during the building’s demolition — may have
directly contributed to the deaths of the
two firefighters last Aug. 18...more>
A
simple change to FDNY protocols could help avert another disaster
like the one that claimed the lives of two firefighters last August,
says Uniformed Firefighters Association head Steve Cassidy.
In a
letter to Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta last week, Cassidy
proposed a new radio code to alert everyone at a fire scene when
water is unavailable.
Often
at fires, the ladder companies doing specific tasks like ventilating
roofs or searching for victims don't realize that engine companies
on the ground are having difficulty getting water on the flames.
Cassidy's proposal would send a radio code out every five minutes
until such problems are resolved...more>
That's
because each time a contestant in today's seventh annual Robert J.
Foti Memorial Miniature Golf Tournament takes a stroke, he will be
raising funds to honor the memory of Robert Foti, a New York City
firefighter who gave his life on Sept. 11, 2001.
Foti,
who spent summers vacationing in Bradley Beach and volunteering at
Unexcelled Fire Company in Neptune, was one of those who answered
his final call to duty at the wreckage of the World Trade Center.
The
golf tournament will start at 10 a.m. today, and this year proceeds
will be donated to the Bradley Beach lifeguards and Unexcelled Fire
Company...more>
Seven scholarships were presented to active FDNY fire
officers and firefighters on August 14 in the memory of
Firefighter Thomas Brick of Ladder 36.
They are funded each year by Salvatore Bommarito and his
family in appreciation for the courageous public service
provided by all FDNY firefighters.
“Each of today’s recipients are the kind of people who want
to be challenged, want to move forward, want to learn,” said
Commissioner Scoppetta during the presentation at FDNY
Headquarters. “These scholarships carry on the spirit of
Firefighter Thomas Brick.”
The recipients included Battalion Chief Brendan McSweeney
from Battalion 15; Captains Brian Boll from Engine 314 and
Michael Callan from Division 6; Lt. James Lynch from Engine
92; and Firefighters David Abreu, assigned to Squad 288 and
working from Squad 61, Tim Duggan from Ladder 24 and Steven
Tagliani from Engine 168.
This is the fifth scholarship award ceremony honoring
Firefighter Brick, who made the Supreme Sacrifice on
December 16, 2003, while operating at a four-alarm fire at a
furniture and mattress warehouse in upper Manhattan...more>
A new batch of bright and enthusiastic leaders of the fire
and EMS service were promoted at the Fire Academy on August
13.
“Everything you have hearled over the years has brought you
to this moment,” said Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta.
“You are the Department’s legacy and its future. It takes a
special kind of person to step up and do the work that you
do each day.”
In all, one member was elevated to the rank of EMS division
chief, five to the rank of fire battalion chief, two to the
rank of EMS deputy chief, 10 to the rank of fire captain,
one to the rank of supervising fire marshal and 15 to the
rank of fire lieutenant.
“You are our future leaders and I look forward to seeing you
move this Department forward,” said Chief of Department
Salvatore Cassano. “All of you have taken a big step today
in helping the FDNY through any challenge it may face.”..more>
A
federal appeals court ruled that Saudi Arabia and four princes of
the kingdom cannot be sued for financing the 9/11 terror attacks -
even if they purposely poured cash into charities that supported al
Qaeda.
The
country and its leaders are protected by sovereign immunity, the 2nd
Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled yesterday, upholding an
earlier decision by a lower court.
Victims of the attacks and the survivors of those killed had accused
the Saudi Arabian government of giving to terrorist-linked
charities, knowing the money was going to al Qaeda.
Prince
Salman, Prince Sultan, Prince Naif and Prince Turki played critical
roles by overseeing the movement of cash to the charities, they
alleged.
"We're
still studying the decision. We're obviously disappointed in the 2nd
Circuit's ruling, and we're looking at our options for pursuing the
litigation for the Sept. 11 victims," said Justin Green, a lawyer
for the victims.
The
appeals court concluded, "Even assuming that the four princes were
aware of Osama bin Laden's public announcements of jihad . . . their
contacts with the United States would remain far too attenuated to
establish person jurisdiction in American courts."
What better way to celebrate the life of one of
the Jolly Rogers than with a grand ole' jam?
This Sunday, the seventh annual Steve "Hangdown"
Harrell Memorial Jam will kick off at noon at
Nansen Park.
A newly promoted FDNY lieutenant at Ladder Co.
157/Engine Co. 255 in the Flatbush section of
Brooklyn, Steve Harrell perished on Sept. 11
while saving others in Tower One of the World
Trade Center.
But the day is not one of mourning.
Instead, it is an event meant to celebrate the
life of a husband, father and friend who had a
flair for music and an uncanny sense of humor.
"Steve was as impressive on the fire floor as he
was with a saxophone," recalled Kevin Kelly of
Harrell. "He leaves a void in our hearts that
will never be filled."...more>
The subway station at 53rd Street and
Seventh Avenue was evacuated this
morning, and three people were treated
at the scene, after riders reported
fumes and smoke from an escalator,
officials said.
The B, D, E and V lines were all
rerouted temporarily (even though the V
line does not pass through the station),
starting at 10:05 a.m. The lines were
running normally, as of 10:44 a.m., but
trains were still bypassing the station
without stopping, said a New York City
Transit spokesman, James O. Anyansi.
Mr. Anyansi said that three people were
treated at the scene, but police
officials said that as many as six
people may have required assistance.
There were no serious injuries reported.
The authorities said the investigation
into the smoke and fumes was continuing,
but that the cause appeared to be a
burning motor, most likely from an
escalator.
Isakov Raman, 40, a vendor from
Flushing, Queens, said he had set up his
food cart this morning about 10 feet
away from a stairway entrance to the
station, and noticed fumes that smelled
“like propane gas” around 9:30 a.m. Soon
after, he said, about 10 to 15 people
came running up the steps, hands and
napkins over their mouths, saying things
like, “I can’t breathe."...more>
Not many pickup trucks have melted
headlights and turn indicators, so I figured
it had to be my buddy's Silverado that
appeared in a Chevy commercial during the
Olympics coverage.
Sure enough, there was my pal Firefighter
Craig Monahan beside the truck he had driven
in from Staten Island on 9/11. One of the
two off-duty firefighters with him had
leaned out the window, imitating a siren.
"He's doing, 'Whoo, whoo,'" Monahan
recalled.
They parked near the south tower in time to
survive the first collapse and then the
second. I watched Monahan immediately
afterward crawl into the ruins to search for
the 11 missing firefighters from his
firehouse, Engine 24/Ladder 5...more>
The annual golf outing for the Lt. Thomas F.
Healy Foundation will be held Aug. 18 at the
Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort in Pennsylvania.
The foundation provides support for members
of the Fire Department who have family
members battling cancer.
It was named after Thomas Healy, an FDNY
lieutenant who served in the department for
32 years. He retired from Ladder 120 in 1997
after a line of duty injury. He died in 2003
after complications from cancer surgery.
His family and loved ones created the
foundation in his memory to celebrate his
"warm personality and generous spirit."
The foundation also is planning to establish
two scholarships in Healy's name.
Packages are available for golfers and
nongolfers. Other activities include hiking,
canoeing, biking and horseback riding. The
resort is near Smithfield Park on the
Delaware Water Gap.
People who can't attend the event but want
to show their support can take out ads in
the journal or serve as sponsors for some of
the activities.
For information, go to the foundation's Web
site at www.ltthomasfhealyfoundation.org or
call (631) 747-3016. The address is: Lt.
Thomas F. Healy Foundation, P.O. Box 445,
Baldwin, N.Y. 11510.
Nearly
900 buildings throughout the five boroughs -- including some of the
most iconic in New York City -- need to be brought in line with the
local building codes and be subjected to city-mandated safety
inspections, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said Sunday.
The 885 structures exempt from city building codes and regular
inspections by the city and the FDNY include the UN's Secretariat
Building, Grand Central Station, Penn Station and the Port Authority
Bus Terminal, according Stringer's office. The buildings do not have
to comply with city codes and inspections because they are either
owned by the federal or state government, by independent authorities
like the Port Authority, or by foreign governments or organizations.
"If something goes wrong in a foreign embassy or in a state
building, it's our firefighters -- New York City firefighters --
that are going to have to go up those stairs and save those lives,
and they don't have a road map in those 885 buildings," said
Stringer at a news conference at the Deutsche Bank building at
Ground Zero, where two firefighters died last year in a blaze...more>
As
of Sunday evening, investigators were still looking into the cause
of a blaze that broke out in a Brooklyn home Saturday evening.
The fire broke out shortly after 7 p.m. at a house on Marion Street
in Ocean Hill that was home to a group of squatters.
Four firefighters suffered minor injuries battling the flames on the
second and third floors of the building.
The owner believes the fire was no accident, and fire officials are
agreeing that the fire was "suspicious."
"It's a complete loss," said the building owner Arthur Spruell.
"I've been supporting, trying to keep up the house the best I
could."
"I would say, at this point, the fire was suspicious and the fire
marshal will come to investigate what the cause of the fire was,"
said FDNY Battalion Chief Michael Light. The squatters escaped
without injury. Nearby homes did suffer minor damage.
A deadly blaze that tore through the
rent-regulated apartment of a mother and her
adult son on the upper East Side is not
considered suspicious, FDNY officials said
Sunday.
Billy Roberts, 65, and his mother, Anna
Roberts, 89, who used a wheelchair, died
early Sunday in their third-floor apartment
at 327 E. 93rd St., officials said.
The cause of the fire remains under
investigation, but fire officials said it
does not appear to be suspicious.
Billy Roberts was remembered by neighbors as
a devoted son.
"He took care of his mother," said Mike
Evangelista, 57, a super for the neighboring
building.
"He was really a very nice guy. ... He was a
good guy."
The blaze was quickly brought under control
and mostly contained to the apartment the
Roberts family rented in the five-story
brick-and-brownstone building...more>
A grand jury hearing evidence on the fatal
Deutsche Bank building fire is expected to
hand out indictments by the end of next
month - and could even charge the city
itself, sources told the Daily News
Thursday.
The panel has been meeting twice a week
since November 2007 to determine whether
anyone is criminally responsible for the
Aug. 18, 2007, blaze that killed two
firefighters at the condemned building that
overlooks Ground Zero.
Among those facing indictment are employees
of the private contractors that were hired
to dismantle the toxic tower, as well as
officials at city agencies that had
oversight at the skyscraper, sources said.
It is also possible that an entire city or
state agency - and perhaps even the City of
New York itself - could be charged, sources
said.
"They're all pointing fingers at each other,
and they could all be right," said one law
enforcement official familiar with the
investigation.
"The Fire Department was supposed to do
inspections every 15 days," said the
official. "They don't."
"[The Department of] Buildings was supposed
to look at the standpipe - they didn't
notice a piece of it was missing?" the
official said. "On the other hand, there
were a lot of pipes in the basement ... how
do you know that one went to the standpipe
and not some toilet?
"Stupidity is not a crime under the penal
code," the official said. "Otherwise, we'd
be a lot busier." ...more>
"It was really
scary," said Shaib
Spencer, 11, who was
visiting from
Antigua. "There were
so many people and
my mom starting
getting worried."
Shaib and a couple
hundred other
tourists were stuck
on the 80th floor
for an hour from
about 8 to 9 p.m.,
witnesses said,
while dozens of men
and women -
including German
couple Jutta and
Michael Siegers -
were trapped inside
the five stalled
elevators.
Michael Siegers, 50,
said he and his
52-year-old wife,
used a cell phone to
call 911.
"It was hot and dark
and other people
were getting
nervous," he said.
An FDNY spokesman
said the elevators
stopped for about 30
minutes before power
was restored.
A
Bedford-Stuyvesant man was injured after a freak fall through a
sidewalk subway grating, and residents are wondering how this
frightening incident could have happened again.
The dramatic rescue of the man was caught on tape, with footage
showing firefighters climbing down a subway air duct, responding to
call for help from the man 10 feet below. The victim was quickly
removed and taken out on a board, his neck in a brace.
Firefighters say the victim was lucky to escape with only minor
injuries.
"It could have been a lot worse," said firefighter Glen Steinle. "He
could have gone head first."
G. Dowling was the resident who taped the incredible rescue from the
fire escape outside his fourth floor apartment, knowing some people
would have to see it to believe it.
"My thing is, how did it happen? The fall, I don't know how it could
happen," he told CBS 2.
"This has been happening for years, "said resident Alzin Mack. "It's
not going to change until they come and inspect these things."...more>
An elderly woman and her son were killed and
another person injured Saturday night in an
upper East Side apartment fire, officials
said.
The blaze, in a third floor apartment at 327
E. 93rd Street, was reported shortly after
midnight.
Fire units responded within four minutes,
officials said, but it was too late to save
the two victims, whose identifies were not
immediately released.
Two firefighters suffered minor injuries,
and the injured person refused medical
treatment.
The fire was quickly brought under control
and mostly contained to the one apartment in
the five-story brick-and-brownstone building
between First and Second Avenues.
That apartment was completely gutted,
officials said.
Tenants said they smelled smoke and 15
minutes later saw it billowing out of the
third floor window.
Dan Guertin, 35, who lives on the building's
top floor, escaped by running to the roof
and climbing to the adjacent building. "I
was asleep," he said. "The fire engines woke
me up. I looked out the kitchen and outside
was full of smoke." Guertin said he would
often see the man who died sitting outside
smoking.
"He was a good guy," Guertin said.
The cause of the fire was still under
investigation early Sunday morning, fire
officials said.
Fire marshals Saturday busted a career
criminal who injured 10 people when he
started a blaze at a Bronx drug den by
setting a stuffed animal on fire,
authorities said.
Duane Mims, 55, allegedly tore apart the
teddy bear and used a lighter to ignite it.
The fire spread from the couch to the
Highbridge building's stairwell about 1:15
a.m. Thursday.
"The apartment's door was open so the fire
raced out the door, up the steps and cut off
people's means of escape," said Chief FDNY
Fire Marshal Robert Byrnes. "It got bad in a
hurry."
Two firefighters and eight residents were
hurt in the blaze at 11-13 Sheridan Ave.,
including an 18-year-old man who was
critically injured.
Mims, whose rap sheet is plastered with more
than 80 prior arrests, escaped the inferno.
Witnesses told fire marshals that several
drug users had gathered in the apartment and
Mims was convinced that another man owed him
$100.
The marshals also found a handwritten note
in the apartment that read, "I'm going to
burn you out and I mean it." It was signed
by Mims, officials said.
Investigators arrested Mims at a homeless
shelter in the Bronx Saturday.
A five-alarm fire
tore through a row of stores and lit up the night sky in
the East Tremont section of the Bronx -- injuring 15
firefighters. Officials say the fire ripped through five
stores on East 180th Street just before 11 p.m. last
night. Heavy flames could be seen shooting out the roofs
of the building, as flames traveled from store to store,
including a deli. It took hours to get the fire under
control. Eyewitness News is told some 15 firefighters
were taken to Jacobi Hospital. Most were treated for
smoke inhalation and minor injuries. The fire burned
near a Con Ed facility that was manned at the time of
the fire. The staff de-energized a feeder as a
precaution. East 180th Street was closed for fire
department activity.
More than 25 years ago, Kevin Delano, 54, married the love of his
life, Rosann, at Our Lady of Grace Church in Howard Beach. On
Monday, August 4, hundreds filled the pews of the same house of
worship to bid a tearful farewell to the hero firefighter.
Delano, who served as Chief of the West Hamilton Beach Volunteer
Fire Department (WHBVFD) for 12 years, died on Wednesday, July 30
from leukemia, which friends and family members believe resulted
from his exposure to the wreckage of the World Trade Center on 9/11,
where he helped in rescue efforts for more than 40 consecutive
hours, according to Mitchell Udowitch, Delano’s friend and an
ex-Captain of the WHBVFD.
“It was only 54 years, but they were the best I could have asked
for,” Delano’s son, Kevin, an FDNY dispatcher in Brooklyn, said. “I
can’t put into words what my father meant to me.”...more>
"It's the generosity New Yorkers received after
the 9-11 attacks" that started the annual New York Says Thank You
program, Kreppein said. "This pays it forward.".
The Times-Picayune 8/6/2008
Local firefighters hope to bring
truck loads of trees on the anniversary of the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to help rebuild a town
devastated in May by an F5 tornado.
Greensburg, Ks., has been chosen
by the New York Says Thank You Foundation for a
project to construct the Kiowa County 4H
Pavilion, a 14,000-square-foot building that
will be used as a gathering place for the
community.
Joining more than 1,400
volunteers will be local firefighters and other
volunteers from Slidell who will be leaving
Sept. 3 to make the 17-hour trip to the small
Kansas town. The local contingent will be led by
St. Tammany Fire Protection District 1 fire
inspector Erik Kreppein. Beside bringing
manpower for the effort, he hopes to fill the
beds of three pickup trucks carrying the
volunteers to the site with trees for the
town...more>
A
group of New York's 9/11 heroes will be special guests at Stand Up
For A Cure's sold-out September 10th concert by
Grammy(R) winning Dave Matthews Band at Madison
Square Garden.
New York-based non-profit, Stand Up For A Cure
created the 2008 Concert Series as a year-long effort to raise funds
and awareness for lung cancer research and treatment. Because many
emergency workers have been diagnosed with lung cancer and lung
related diseases after working at Ground Zero, the band and charity
decided to donate tickets to New York 9/11
first responders and their families from the FDNY, NYPD and
emergency medical services...more>
Leonard said firefighters from Rescue Co. 5 had to
cut through the street with high-powered saws and jackhammers to get
access to shutoff valves.
Staten Island Advance 8/7/2008
A massive water main break in a Greenridge
development last night flooded streets and caused thousands of
dollars in damage, leaving homeowners trying to pick up the pieces.
Garages were awash with water and living spaces
destroyed after a 12-inch pipe near the intersection of Ilyssa Way
and Aspen Knolls Way ruptured and sent torrents of water coursing
into Aspen Knolls Estates for more than three hours.
"This place is a disaster -- period," said disgusted
homeowner Theresa Duchemin.
Residences hit the hardest were located in two
cul-de-sacs: 150 to 166 Ilyssa Way and 112 to118 Ilyssa Way,
authorities said.
"It's 1- to 2-feet deep in my garage," said Stratton
Lynn of 158 Ilyssa Way. "Everything in there's floating. I tried to
move my pictures and raise the toolboxes." ...more>
Ever since
the 9/11 attacks, West Sider Jeff Parness has made it his mission to
show Americans who reached out to help New York that we're there for
them, too - which now has him headed to a small Kansas town "to do
the country's largest barn raising ever."
A 2007
Liberty Medal winner, Parness started the "New York Says Thank You
Foundation." Each year, on the weekend before the 9/11 anniversary,
he takes volunteers to a community hit hard by natural disaster to
work on a rebuilding project.
"We will
never forget what people around the country did for us after 9/11,
and to me the best way to honor that sense of humanity is by helping
other people rebuild on the 9/11 anniversary," he said...more>
A group of firefighters and Port Authority
Police Officers Aug. 1 greeted 18 wounded
veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars from
the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington at
7 World Trade Center.
The Chief-Leader/Michel
Friang
FROM KABUL TO BAGHDAD TO
GROUND ZERO: A Silverstein
Properties representative shows
veterans of the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars Ground Zero
from the 52nd floor of 7 World
Trade Center. The trip was put
together for the second year in
a row by Hospital Audience Inc.
with the help of the Uniformed
Fire Officers Association.
Hospital Audiences Inc.
sponsored the weekend trip for the vets, which
started with a tour of Ground Zero and 7 World
Trade Center, and continued with a visit to the
World Yacht Harbor and a baseball game at Yankee
Stadium.
Members of the Emerald Society and
uniformed firefighters welcomed the vets, many
of whom were amputees, on the 52nd floor of the
building, while a representative of Silverstein
Properties gave the group a tour focusing on how
the building was developed to be safer than the
ones that were destroyed on 9/11 but was also
more environmentally friendly, as it cultivates
sunlight rather than using artificial light and
captures rainwater for the building's irrigation
system.
Uniformed Fire Officers Association officials
Stephen Carbone, Richard Alles and Patrick
Reynolds were also on hand for the event...more>
They’ve reunited in a more
peaceful effort. From left, Huntley Gill, Tim
Ivory and Tom Whyte all helped in the
firefighting efforts at Ground Zero. Now, all
are involved with Fleet Obsolete.Times
Herald-Record/DEBORAH MEDENBACH
Three men look out over Fleet Obsolete on the
Rondout Creek, enjoying the peace of river
currents and discussions of boat maintenance.
They're about to take a month-long "Profiles in
Courage" tour on PT 728 out to Long Island Sound
and Hyannis to highlight the role of speedy
patrol boats against enemy warships in World War
II.
Capt. Tom Whyte, marine engineer Tim Ivory and
pilot Huntley Gill met on what Whyte calls "a
very black day" — Sept. 11, 2001, in New York
Harbor.
Whyte, a 20-year New York City firefighter, was
new to the marine division. His first night
shift assignment evaporated with a morning call
about the attack on the World Trade Center. He
boated down from Yonkers to take command of
Marine One until its officers turned up. They
let him off near Liberty Street, where fires
blazed out of control...more>
"It doesn't matter how many years pass," said
Hastings, who lived in Hicksville in 1978 but has since moved to
Florida. "The other widows and families are always in my heart."
NY Times 8/3/2008
When he was 5 years old,
Billy O’Connor stood on a Brooklyn street
with his mother and two sisters, and for the
last time, watched his father fight a fire.
It was August 2, 1978. The
O’Connors were supposed to go the beach that
day, but when they went to the firehouse
that morning to pick up Billy’s father,
Firefighter William O’Connor, at the end of
his shift, they were told he had been called
to a fire at a Waldbaum’s supermarket in
Sheepshead Bay. So they went there.
Firefighter O’Connor found
Billy and the others in the crowd of
spectators, and waved. Then he stepped onto
the roof of the burning building and it gave
way. He and five of his colleagues died in
the fire that day, which was the highest
Fire Department death toll from a single
fire in a dozen years. Firefighter O’Connor
was just seven months into a career that was
a family tradition — a job that also took
his grandfather’s life.
Since then, the department has had its share
of awful days, including the staggering
losses on Sept 11, 2001. Nevertheless, the
relatives, friends and colleagues of the six
who died in the Waldbaum’s fire have
passionately guarded their memory, making
sure their remembrance is distinct and not
overshadowed. Every year they gather at a
church at the beginning of August to
remember the six men...more>
Top Floor Of 6-Story Building Burned; 250
Firefighters Called In To Battle The Flames
WCBSTV 8/1/2008
The
six-alarm fire that lit up Brooklyn on Friday night took hours to
put out. In the end it destroyed the top floor of the six-story
building and put several firefighters in the hospital.
In all, 23 firefighters were injured fighting the blaze, but all of
the injuries were considered minor.
Chopper 2 HD was over the scene just after 6 p.m. as smoke billowed
out the occupied residential structure in the Flatbush section of
the borough.
"I'm looking up like this. I'm shocked, I'm stunned," one resident
said.
The fire up above burned for some time before residents of the
residential building knew anything was wrong. It ripped through five
apartments on the top floor and threatened to take the entire roof
as firefighters got to work.
"In the early moments we were trying to contain the fire to one side
of the building and what they saw from the helicopters was
firefighters up on the roof cutting holes to relieve the
smoke," FDNY Assistant Chief James Pfeifer said...more>
A superintendent helped the firefighters locate
the door at the chimney’s base. When it was opened, the first person
Grace spoke to was Firefighter John Taliercio. “She was sitting down
with her knees up,” he said. “She was sitting there like waiting for
us. The first thing she said to me was, ‘I broke my leg.’ ”
NY Times 8/2/2008
The
emergency call came in late on Thursday, a brief but urgent message
from a building in the West Village: “Female fell down air shaft.”
Firefighters raced to the Westbeth building,
a rambling artists’ complex on West Street.
They were told the victim had fallen about
180 feet down a chimney.
And so they braced for the worst when they
went to open a small steel door at the
bottom of the chimney. But when Lt. Simon
Ressner poked his fingers through a crack in
the door, a small hand popped out from the
other side.
“I just jumped back,” Lieutenant Ressner
said at a news briefing on Friday. “I wasn’t
expecting anybody alive at the bottom of the
shaft, so I was shocked.”
When firefighters broke open the steel door,
the blackened figure of a girl peered back
at them from a deep mound of soot.
“She was completely black,” Lieutenant
Ressner said. “The only part we could see
was her eyes and her mouth.”
“I think she probably went down head first
and landed on her back,” he added...more>
Tuesday’s Children, a national nonprofit
organization that provides services to 9/11
families, is currently recruiting adults to
serve as a positive role model for a child who
lost a parent on Sept. 11. Since many of the
children lost their fathers, the need is
particularly acute for young, active male
volunteers.
Tuesday’s Children provides a wide range of
services for Sept. 11 families, including
mentoring, advocacy for children, next-step life
skills and leadership training for adults.
The Tuesday’s Children Mentoring Program
pairs these children with specially-trained
adult role models who can offer new
opportunities, provide guidance, enhance coping
skills and, most of all, have fun. Mentoring
candidates will be screened and trained by
mentoring experts and then matched with a child
in their area. Mentors must be 18 years of age
and agree to a one- year commitment.
“At Tuesday’s Children, our goal is to
ensure that the thousands of children who lost a
parent on Sept. 11 never walk alone,” said Sara
Wingerath, director of mentoring for Tuesday’s
Children. “The importance of a mentor’s
friendship, encouragement and support is
incalculable. With a mentor’s help these kids
will have another source of strength and
guidance as they grow into adolescence and young
adulthood.”
Tuesday’s Children offers a community-based
mentoring program which takes place at either
the child’s home or somewhere within the
community. The mentors participating in this
program will meet twice a month (days, times and
locations are flexible) for one-on-one sessions
with their child, which may include playing
basketball in the backyard, helping with
homework, playing board games, taking in a
sporting event, volunteering together for a
community service project, or just providing a
shoulder to lean on.
Tuesday’s Children also offers quarterly
group outings, such as ice skating, museums,
bowling, and picnics as well as tickets to
various events like New York Mets games, New
Jersey Nets games, Broadway shows, or the
circus.
The Tuesday’s Children mentoring program was
structured and implemented in conjunction with
MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership.
For more information or to volunteer to be a
mentor, write to Sara at
sara@tuesdayschildren.org or call (212)
319-3988.
RESCUE:
Firefighters remove the soot-covered 12-year-old from
the Bethune Street entrance of the famed Westbeth
Building last night. She had climbed into a chimney on
the roof and fell through a shaft into the basement.
A 12-year-old girl
miraculously survived a 15-story plunge after she
climbed into the chimney of a historic Greenwich Village
building last night, authorities said.
"My daughter fell down the
shaft!" the girl's father frantically shouted to
security at the Westbeth Building at 55 Bethune St.
shortly after 10:30 p.m., an employee there said.
The girl, whose family
lives in the famed artists' building, had been playing
on the roof and was somehow able to climb the chimney,
which FDNY officials estimate is two stories high.
Then she tumbled down to
the basement of the 13-story structure...more>
Fire
Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta testified
Thursday before a Manhattan grand jury
investigating last summer's fatal fire in
the Deutsche Bank building at the World
Trade Center site.
Accompanied by
criminal lawyer Gary Naftalis, Scoppetta
declined to discuss what he told the panel,
which is trying to determine whether anyone
should face criminal negligence charges for
the deaths of two firefighters. Joseph
Graffagnino, 33, and Robert Beddia, 53, died
last year when they couldn't get water from
a standpipe in the building to fight a
blaze. Part of the pipe had been removed,
and the Fire Department, which was supposed
to inspect the system every 15 days, had not
looked at it for more than a year before the
Aug. 18 fire...more>
Fire Commissioner Nicholas
Scoppetta, Chief of Department Salvatore Cassano and members
of the FDNY Law Department received a proclamation from the
International Code Council (ICC) on July 31, commending the
work they have done to change the New York City Fire Code.
“It is truly an honor that you
have come out today to acknowledge this important project,”
said Commissioner Scoppetta. “These changes were long
overdue and will be a legacy for this administration.”
Among the FDNY members
commended were Counsel to the Department Julian Bazel and
Director of the Code Revision James Hansen, both of whom
spearheaded the project.
“We admire your commitment to
public and firefighter safety in the City of New York,” said
Vice President of Fire Service Activities for the ICC, who
was joined at the event by Fire Service Activities Regional
Manager Bruce Johnson.
The new Fire Code for New York
City was approved by the City Council on May 28, replacing a
code that had been in operation for more than 100 years...more>
National September 11 Memorial & Museum News
7/31/2008
A
milestone moment in the creation of the National September 11
Memorial Museum occurred this month as the first non-in situ
historic artifact was delivered to the Museum site: the monumental
Vesey Street Stairs. The artifact is commonly referred to as the
“Survivor’s Stairway” because it served as a vital route to safety
for thousands fleeing the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Beginning in the middle of the night on Friday, July 18, and
continuing throughout the heat of the following day, dedicated crews
at the World Trade Center site labored to transport and position
this 21 foot high, 64 foot long concrete remnant. As 25
construction professionals, conservators, structural engineers, and
Memorial & Museum staff kept careful watch, the Stairs, securely set
within a flatbed transporter truck, passed under a nearby pedestrian
overpass crossing the West Side Highway with a mere four inches of
clearance. Weighing some 116,000 pounds, the Stairs were then
lifted by the single cable of a 500-ton crane, pivoted, and lowered
more than 70 feet to bedrock. Now safely placed within the
foundations of the Memorial & Museum, the Stairs will be
repositioned in the coming months for their final installation.
The Stairs provide a powerful reference to the survivors’ story and
reinforce a fundamental message: every one of us lives in a
post-9/11 world, and, in that sense, every one of us is a survivor
of September 11.
Members of the FDNY will join
Saturday for a memorial service commemorating the 30th
anniversary of the Walbaum’s fire, which occurred on August
2, 1978.
Six firefighters died when the
roof of a burning Brooklyn supermarket collapsed, plunging
12 firefighters into the flames. The fire began in a hallway
near the compressor room as crews were renovating the store,
and quickly escalated to a fourth-alarm. Less than an hour
after the fire was first reported, nearly 20 firefighters
were on the roof when the central portion gave way.
Thirty-four firefighters, one emergency medical technician
and one Emergency Services police officer were injured in
the fire and the tragedy is remembered as one of the worst
disasters in the New York City Fire Department’s 143-year
history...more>
Nearly
seven years after September 11 and three
years after Hurricane Katrina, the
Department of Homeland Security on
Thursday unveiled an emergency
communications plan that calls on 90
percent of high-risk urban areas to have
interoperable communications in place by
2010.
The deal
"emphasizes the human element and
cross-jurisdictional cooperation, going
beyond simply buying new equipment," DHS
undersecretary Robert Jamison said in a
statement.
DHS was
directed by a 2002 congressional mandate
to develop the plan. The agreement,
known as the National Emergency
Communications Plan (NECP), will unfold
in three stages over the next five
years.
According
to the official Federal Emergency
Management Agency's report on the
reactions of first responders to the New
York City, Pentagon, and Shanksville,
Penn. accident scenes on Sept. 11, it
was the presence or lack of an organized
command structure – and by extension, a
communications structure – that helped
determine the success of the
operations. A program called the
National Incident Management System, or
NIMS, was also been set up by President
George W. Bush to provide such a
framework.
By 2010,
emergency responders in 90 percent of
cities that fall into DHS' Urban Areas
Security Initiative (UASI) must be able
to set up an effective communications
system within one hour of a disaster...more>
A dispute over
$375 could cost a man from Staten Island's
Midland Beach neighborhood 15 years in
prison.
Stephen Udvari,
26, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment
today in state Supreme Court, St. George, to
felony and arson charges stemming from a
blaze he allegedly started June 6 on Baden
Place, two doors down from his home.
The early
morning fire at 164 Baden Place, gutted a
house there under renovation, destroyed an
SUV and damaged four other homes, including
Udvari's at 168 Baden, prosecutors said.
Authorities
said Udvari burned down 164 Baden due to a
dispute his father, also named Stephen, had
with the homeowner, Linda DeCosimo-Russo
over car repairs the elder Udvari had
performed for her...more>
The
motto of the U.S. Navy's newest warship, New York, is "Never
forget." And it's unlikely the men and women who built it ever will.
After all, the ship's bow was once seven tons of twisted steel from
the World Trade Center. The salvaged metal arrived at Amite Foundry
& Machine, just north of New Orleans, in 2003. "The hair stood up on
the back of my neck when I thought of all the people who lost their
lives," remembers foundry worker Junior Chavers. Chavers and his
coworkers reverently melted the pieces in the foundry's furnace,
their eyes often filled with tears. 
