Bronx Fire Case: Defense Pins Blame On Fire Dept,
Chief-Leader 1/16/09
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TOM VON ESSEN: Defense tries to put him on trial. |
Defense lawyers for the past and present owners of a Bronx apartment building where firefighters died in 2005 Jan. 6 sought to implicate the Fire Department as more culpable than their clients of criminally negligent homicide by blaming then-Commissioner Thomas Von Essen's decision to discontinue issuing safety ropes and harnesses in 2000.
Lieut. Curtis Meyran and John G. Bellew died Jan. 23, 2005 when they were forced to jump from the fourth floor of 236 East 178th St. in Tremont along with four other FDNY members who sustained injuries when they could not gain access to the fire escape, allegedly because it was blocked by an illegal partition wall.
Tenants, Owners on Trial
Tenants Rafael Castillo and Caridad Coste—who are charged with two counts of manslaughter in the second degree, two counts of criminally negligent homicide and one count of reckless endangerment—put up the wall for a makeshift room that they rented out. Former owner Cesar Rios and the current owner, a liability company that includes him as its agent, are also
named defendants.
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On the second day of the trial, the prosecution painted an emotional story with its first witness, Lieut. Kevin White of Ladder Company 56, who responded to the fire and answered the distress calls from firefighters at the rear of the building. When he arrived, he testified, firefighters were hanging out of the fourth-floor windows surrounded by smoke. Lieutenant White called for ladders and ropes right before watching them fall one by one.
"They came with ladders, but that was too late," he said, as whimpers from the widows of Mr. Meyran and Mr. Bellew shook the courtroom.
Blueprints and photos presented during the trial showed that the fire- fighters jumped from an area where they were surrounded by smoke and unable to reach the fire escape due to the partition.
But during cross-examination David Goldstein, Mr. Rios's attorney, elicited testimony that the department once issued safety ropes and harnesses to firefighters for use in instances such as this, but discontinued this policy in 2000.
Mr. Goldstein also asked whether Lieutenant White ascertained the details about a hose burst while firefighters responded to the fire.
"Messages can get stepped on," Lieutenant White replied.
When the attorney pushed the issue, Lieutenant White asked if in fact there had been a hose burst, and Mr. Goldstein responded with lawyerly disbelief, insinuating that the fire- fighter actually did not know of such a problem on the site.
"I'm asking you," Lieutenant White said heatedly, prompting muffled laughter from firefighters in the audience.
Neal Comer, the attorney for the building's current owner, told reporters outside the courtroom that even though the tenants had constructed an illegal subdivision of the apartment, that subdivision did not cause the fire and that it would have been impossible for the building manager to foresee all the conditions— such as the freezing temperatures and the broken hose—that contributed to the firefighters' deaths.
"I don't think the prosecution can prove their case," he said.
Mr. Comer added that the FDNY had to shoulder some of the blame in the deaths because in 2000 Commissioner Von Essen ordered that safety ropes no longer be issued and that firefighters be forbidden to carry them, leaving the firefighters at what became known as the Black Sunday fire with no way to get down from the fourth floor. (A Brooklyn firefighter also died as the result of a blaze in that borough on the same day.)
As Uniformed Fire Officers Association President John J. McDonnell explained in a phone interview, the ropes' 10-year shelf life was set to expire in 2000, and Mr. Von Essen surveyed the FDNY membership on how often they used the ropes and harnesses and concluded that it wasn't frequent enough to warrant reissuing them. The equipment was, however, reissued by the current FDNY administration after the Black Sunday fire.
"They certainly didn't enhance their ability to save themselves," Mr. McDonnell said of the lack of safety ropes during the fire. "The issuance of harnesses and ropes should be maintained forever."
Questions Von Essen's Logic
Mr. McDonnell questioned Commissioner Von Essen's rationale for scrapping the safety units.
"If you're calling it lack of usage, would you take away the police officers' bulletproof vest because they've never been fired upon?" he asked rhetorically.
Mr. Von Essen did not respond to messages.
Many of the firefighters who joined the widows in the courtroom Jan. 6 declined to speak even anonymously about their reaction to the trial, but they displayed their disdain for the defendants and their lawyers during the proceedings. During the cross-examination of Lieutenant White, Mr. Goldstein unsuccessfully tried to get the officer to admit that he was generally confused about the entire situation, causing one firefighter to roll his eyes and silently mouth, "Geez."
The previous day, the prosecution played transmissions of Lieutenant Meyran's Mayday call, prompting his widow, Jeanette, to sob. Bronx Supreme Court Justice Margaret Clancy reminded the two juries—the tenants' case is being heard by a different jury than for the building owners— to focus solely on the evidence and ignore the outpouring of emotion.
Justice Clancy also insisted that no one in the audience display the name or picture of either of the two dead firefighters. On the first day of the trial, Ms. Meyran wore her husband's FDNY shirt with his name on it and held a card from his funeral that included his photo.
Mr. McDonnell said the UFOA supported the families of the dead firefighters not just for emotional comfort, but to highlight the danger of building changes that compromise fire safety. Even though he faulted Mr. Von Essen for his decision regarding the ropes, Mr. McDonnell refused to let the defendants off the hook.
"We want to demonstrate our conviction that illegal occupancies and illegal alterations be dealt with in a serious manner," he said.
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