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Firefighter Weeps For 'What You Lost' At Black Sunday Mass

NY Daily News 1/24/09

Firefighter Eugene Stolowski, a survivor of the fire, becomes emotional as he speaks to the media about the death of two fellow firefighters.

The Black Sunday fire trial was suspended Friday, but one of the blaze's survivors gave emotional testimony at a memorial Mass marking the fourth anniversary of the tragedy.

"I wanted to be a fireman since I was a kid," sobbed Eugene Stolowski, who has not been able to battle blazes since the Jan. 23, 2005, inferno that killed killed two and injured four other Bravest.

"A day like today reminds you of what you lost," Stolowski sobbed.

Stolowski, who works for the FDNY family assistance unit while he still recovers, may testify at the manslaughter trial of the Bronx building owner, manager and two tenants accused of creating the deadly firetrap.

"Physically, I'm doing okay," Stolowski, 37, said with a grateful smile at St. Joseph's Church in the Bronx, where 100 members of the FDNY gathered.

"You know, aches and pains every day. I've got a lot of metal through my body."

Stolowski and five comrades were forced to jump from a fourth-floor apartment to a concrete courtyard after becoming trapped in the E. 178th St. tenement building.

Firefighter John Bellew, 37, and Lt. Curtis Meyran, 46, were killed.

"Honestly, it's all about him today," widow Eileen Bellew said at the hour-long memorial service, where the two men's helmets sat on the altar with framed photographs.

She has sat in every day on the three-week-old trial, which is expected to last another two weeks.

The defendants are accused of putting up illegal partition walls, creating a warren of rooms that blocked access to the fire escape.

The trial was put off Friday because of a juror medical emergency but is expected to resume Monday.

mgrace@nydailynews.com

 

 

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