More than 100 firefighters battled a three-alarm fire at a Queens building on Tuesday. The fire broke out around 4:15 p.m. in a six-story apartment building in the Woodside section.
There were no reported injuries and no immediate word on the cause>>>
Firefighters resuscitate a dog rescued during a fire at 132 Kramer St. while the dog's owner, holds the canine's head.
Six people suffered smoke inhalation in an apartment fire last night in South Beach that also left a dog clinging to life.
The victims -- none of whom were identified by authorities -- were removed to Staten island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze. Two firefighters also suffered minor injuries.
An overloaded extension cord began sparking in apartment 2A of 132 Kramer St.,
part of the South Beach Houses, about 6:35 p.m. and quickly filled the building with thick smoke, said FDNY Deputy Chief James Leonard of Division 8.
Arriving firefighters saw residents hanging out their windows gasping for air, Leonard said.
The fire broke out just as a park next door was crowded with parents and kids enjoying the end of a sunny afternoon.
Bianca Ortiz, 17, called 911 after seeing columns of smoke wafting from the windows -- something that reminded her of a fire that broke out in her own home two years ago.
"It was horrible; when I saw all the flames, it was just reminiscent of that," she said. "It was scary."
Upon hearing reports that people were trapped in the burning apartment, Firefighter Joseph Last of Ladder Co. 81 hurriedly put a portable ladder against the side of the building to gain entry to a second-floor window.
After ripping off the metal gates, Last crawled through the window and stepped on something.
"I wasn't sure what it was, so I put my hand down on it and it was this big black dog. When I found him, he was breathing," Last said>>>
A multi-agency search is underway after a man was reportedly seen caught under a pier on East 90th St., Manhattan, N.Y.
The Coast Guard was contacted by the New York Fire Department, after they were alerted by an unidentified caller via emergency call box, to a man caught under a pier in the East River.
The Coast Guard quickly responded by sending two 25-foot rescue boat crews to search the area. The New York Police Department has two rescue boats and a helicopter on scene and the FDNY has rescue boats and a diver the water.
“The quick thinking of the individual who alerted authorities to this case was an immense help and allowed rescue units get on scene quickly,” Michelle Krupa, Search and Rescue Controller at Coast Guard Sector New York. “If a person is witnessing someone in distress they should always take note of where they are and contact the proper authorities immediately to give them the best possible directions to where they are.”
Sponsors of a bill to reopen the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund for thousands of ailing Ground Zero first responders and workers predicted Tuesday that the House would pass the long-sought legislation this year.
But it was unclear Tuesday how the bill would fare in the Senate, where aides say there may be resistance to its $11-billion price tag and its promise of compensation that the Congressional Budget Office estimated to be an average of $350,000 each for 18,000 workers and residents near Ground Zero.
Democratic Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn Maloney of Manhattan expressed optimism about House passage as they spoke to two busloads of former police officers, firefighters and workers who came down from Long Island and New York City for yesterday's House hearing on the bill.
"We have a really good chance of passing this for the first time," said Nadler.
Nadler said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) supports the bill. Another supporter, Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), said some Republicans would vote for it.
King said the House could pass it as soon as May or June. But Maloney said in a statement later she hoped for passage "by the eighth anniversary of the attacks" on Sept. 11, 2009>>>
An appeals court today ruled to delay jury selection in the trial of a Staten Island widow accused of slaying her husband, so prosecutors can respond to defense attorneys' request for a change of venue.
The decision moves jury selection - which was slated to begin tomorrow morning in state Supreme Court, St. George - back to April 9.
The appellate court granted the temporary stay after defense attorneys Mario Gallucci and Joseph Benfante filed a request for the trial to be moved off Staten Island, reasoning that Janet Redmond-Mercereau cannot receive a fair trial by an impartial jury here due to local notoriety the case has generated.
Mrs. Redmond-Mercereau, a former Tottenville High School teacher, is accused of shooting her husband, Supervising Fire Marshal Douglas Mercereau, as he slept in the couple's Oakwood home on Dec. 2, 2007.
Prosecutors Yolanda Rudich and Adam Silberlight have until April 9 to respond to the defense attorneys' request for a change of venue.
Should the appeals court rule in favor of Gallucci and Benfante strictly on the basis of their brief, the trial could be shifted to a court in Brooklyn or Manhattan immediately.
Or, they could wait for a jury to be selected here before allowing both sides to argue the matter on the record. If it's decided that a fair and impartial jury is impossible to select on the Island, that jury could be aborted and the trial would get a fresh start beginning with jury selection in another borough.
Neither Gallucci nor Benfante would comment on the appellate ruling for a temporary stay.
Firefighters enter the Anna Erika Home For Adults on Henderson Avenue in New Brighton where a woman was badly burned in a fire in her room.
A 67-year-old woman was badly burned early this morning after a fire broke out in her bedroom at a New Brighton nursing facility.
The victim -- whose identity was not released -- suffered second- and third-degree burns of her arms, chest and stomach and was rushed to the burn unit at Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze, said FDNY Division 8 Deputy Chief Roger Sakowich.
The fire started in the woman's fifth-floor room at the Anna Erika Home for Adults, 110 Henderson Ave., at about 12:30 a.m.
It was brought under control in about 15 minutes, authorities said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and fire marshals will be investigating the incident, Sakowich added.
An Anna Erika administrator declined to comment on the incident.
Fire Commissioner Nicholas
Scoppetta accepts a check for $175,000 from Chairman of the New
York Fire Safety Foundation Dr. Gerry Lynch.
The New York Fire Safety Foundation donated $175,000 to the FDNY’s
Family Assistance Unit on March 31, during a ceremony at FDNY
Headquarters.
“Many of the great successes we’ve had at the Department are because of
organizations like the New York Fire Safety Foundation,” said Fire
Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta. “For many years they have helped many
of our families and have truly made a difference for the Department.”
The New York Fire Safety Foundation has supported FDNY members for
decades, most notably after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when
they raised and distributed more than $3 million for the families of
fallen members.
As
the charity dissolves, Foundation Chairman Dr. Gerry Lynch said it is
donating its remaining funds to the FDNY’s Family Assistance Unit. The
unit supports the families of FDNY members when there is a death,
accident or serious illness in the family.
“Many of my happiest memories are through the work I have done for this
Foundation,” said Dr. Lynch>>>
Courtesy of the New York Yankees
The memorial contains a piece of World Trade Center steel, which was presented to the Yankees by the "Gene O'Kane Division" of retired firefighters of New York City.
Structure at George M. Steinbrenner Field Dedicated Sunday
MLB.com 3/29/09
The New York Yankees will dedicate a new memorial in front of Steinbrenner Field to honor victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The memorial, which was presented by the Gene O'Kane Division of retired New York City firefighters, contains a piece of steel from the ruins of the World Trade Center.
A pregame ceremony is planned for Sunday before the Yankees host the Pittsburgh Pirates at 1:15 p.m.
The memorial depicts the distinctive twin towers of the World Trade Center. The monument's foundation takes the shape of the Pentagon, to honor the victims of American Airlines Flight 77. The memorial itself sits on grass that represents victims of United Flight 93, which crashed in Somerset County, Pa.
Rescue workers remove a man who was pinned between two cars on Neckar Avenue in the Concord section of Staten Island.
Rescue workers removed a Staten Island man who was pinned between vehicles in Concord last night, after he tried to stop an SUV that lurched backwards, police said.
Jack Turso, 43, was taking out the trash at a Neckar Avenue apartment complex about 7:45 p.m. when the 1996 red Jeep Grand Cherokee he was driving rolled down the steep street, said witnesses and authorities.
The Jeep drifted into two parked cars -- a white Lexus sedan and a black Lincoln Towncar -- and trapped Turso, who was partially hanging out of the SUV's driver door. Firefighters freed Turso after 20 minutes, and he was rushed to Richmond University Hospital in stable condition.
A three-alarm blaze
engulfed most of a Bronx block early Sunday,
destroying a row of businesses, officials and
witnesses said.
The fire ignited just after
1 a.m. and spread quickly through several
one-story buildings on White Plains Road between
E. 235th and E. 236th Sts., officials said.
More than 140 firefighters
were needed to battle the stubborn fire.
The buildings share a
cockloft - space above the ceilings but below
the roof - enabling the flames to jump from
store to store, FDNY officials said.
By the time the fire was
extinguished at 2:50 a.m., multiple stores,
including a deli, a computer repair store and a
Caribbean restaurant, were gutted.
"We're tax accountants! We
were ready for the tax season," said a mournful
Alfred Simms, manager of an accounting firm
damaged in the blaze.
No one was injured in the
blaze. The cause of the fire remained under
investigation late yesterday, FDNY officials
said.
Business owners said
another fire ignited on the block last December
and FDNY marshals had deemed it an act of arson.
The World Trade Center Memorial
Foundation is dumping a wad of dough on retired Sen.
Alfonse D'Amato for his influence in Washington, the
Daily News has learned.
The nonprofit agreed to pay
D'Amato's lobbying firm, Park Strategies, $50,000
for a six-month stint that began in January,
foundation spokeswoman Lynn Rasic said.
"Park Strategies is helping us
navigate the legislative process," Rasic said. "In
addition, they're helping to explore other channels
for federal support."
D'Amato has been paid $20,000
of a $10,000-a-month, six-month retainer. Rasic said
he had donated his services for the first month.
The former lawmaker was angry
when questioned about the payment.
"Do you contribute your
services?" he said before hanging up on a reporter
Saturday.
The payments did not appear in
disclosure forms the charity filed with the Internal
Revenue Service. Nonprofits only have to list
contractors who make more than $50,000.
The foundation, charged with
raising funds to erect a 9/11 memorial in lower
Manhattan, has surpassed its initial goal of $350
million.
But it wants to raise another
$25 million to start an endowment and pay for museum
exhibitions, Rasic said>>>
Lt. Kevin
Flanagan receives his Hero of the Month award from
Mark Kramer, CEO of the New York Daily News, along
with Chief of Department Salvatore Cassano and
Battalion Chief Frank Donnelly.
Fire Lt. Kevin Flanagan of
Ladder 28 was honored as the New York Daily News
Hero of the Month on March 27, for the brave rescue
of a 79-year-old woman in upper Manhattan on Jan.
18.
“What Kevin did in January is
nothing short of spectacular,” said Fire
Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta during the ceremony
at the News Headquarters in Manhattan. “The term
‘hero’ often gets overused, but in this case it’s
absolutely true.”
Lt. Flanagan, a 31-year veteran
of the FDNY, crawled into the burning apartment
without the assistance of a hose line to rescue the
woman, who lay unconscious in her hallway>>>
An Ohio choirgirl got a big city thrill Friday when she became the 1 millionth person to visit Ground Zero's tribute museum.
Shaique Gamble stepped over the threshold of the Liberty St. visitor center shortly after 10 a.m. and cheers rang out.
"It was kind of funny and shocking at the same time," said the 16-year-old, who was wide-eyed but all smiles at the surprise welcome.
"I just expected to come and take a tour and then this happened."
The student is on a whirlwind three-day tour of New York City with a band and choir group from Perry High School in Lima, Ohio.
Sporting an "I Love NY" T-shirt, she and her pals were given a tour by the Tribute WTC center president, Lee Ielpi, who brought the group to tears as he spoke of those who perished on 9/11, including his firefighter son.
"It's sad to see all the stuff that happened, to actually see it for myself rather than on the news," Shaique said. "It made me cry.">>>
Pregnant Mom Killed And 8 Hurt In Unrelated Accidents
NBCNewYork.com 3/28/09
A young pregnant woman was killed and a second woman seriously injured Friday when a van plowed onto a Manhattan sidewalk at rush hour and mowed them down.
The reason for the crash was unclear, but some witnesses told reporters that the van's driver and a passenger had been driving slowly alongside the women, catcalling them, in the moments before the vehicle lurched forward and slammed into a building.
Police arrested the driver, Keston Brown, 27, of the Bronx. He was charged with second-degree manslaughter, felonious assault and driving while intoxicated.
Killed in the incident was Ysemny Ramos, a 29-year-old mother of two from Brooklyn. Relatives said she had a third child on the way. She had been headed home to celebrate the third anniversary of her wedding.
"She was full of love," her distraught husband, Renaldo Ramos, told the New York Post. "She refused to see the glass half empty and she always filled up my cup when I saw it half empty.">>>
Police say an emotionally disturbed woman was evaluated by hospital officials after starting a fire in a Manhattan apartment Friday.
The fifth floor of an Upper West Side building caught fire Friday morning. Police say the woman was throwing things out the windows as the fire burned.
Several officers were treated for smoke inhalation, but no other injuries were reported.
Fire officials say the fire was small and was put out in 10 minutes.
The Fire Department said on Friday that it would limit the amount of overtime for firefighters and other uniformed personnel to spread such payments more evenly throughout the department and to control pension costs.
The fire commissioner, Nicholas Scoppetta, said the department would introduce a cap on overtime for firefighters, officers and marshals to 81.25 hours per quarter, or 325 hours a year, for certain tasks that do not involve fighting fires or rescuing people.
Commissioner Scoppetta said some employees have worked “excessive amounts” of overtime that should have been made available to others.
The new policy will save on pension costs, the commissioner said. Uniformed employees are allowed to retire after 20 years, and their pension payments are based on their final year of salary or an average of their last three years of earnings, depending on when they were hired. As a result, firefighters and other civil servants, like police officers, typically work as much overtime as possible in their final year.
Under the cap, earnings will be monitored by a new overtime control office; the office will report to the department chief, Salvatore Cassano>>>
Community groups and fire officials spoke out against an illegal building practice at Bronx Community College Friday.
Members of the city fire department met with the State Senate Committee on Housing to put an end to the widespread practice of subdividing apartments and private homes with drywall. The department says this type of construction is dangerous.
"We can say with absolute certainty that illegal partition walls create extremely dangerous conditions for our firefighters and occupants of the building in which these partitions are constructed," said Assistant Chief of Fire Prevention Thomas Jenson>>>
Once hailed as a beacon of rebirth in the aftermath of Sept. 11, the Freedom Tower has been stripped of its patriotic name -- which has been swapped out for the more marketable "One World Trade Center," Port Authority officials conceded yesterday.
More than seven years after the terror attacks and amid an effort to market the tower to international tenants, sentiment gave way to practicality.
"As we market the building we will ensure that the building is presented in the best possible way," said PA Chairman Anthony Coscia.
"One World Trade Center is its address. It's the address that we're using. It's the one that's easiest for people to identify with, and, frankly, we've gotten a very interested and warm reception to it."
Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles Burlingame was the pilot aboard American Airlines Flight 77 that was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon, said the renaming of the tower is one more example that the nation is forgetting 9/11.
"If we can't say the word freedom out loud, God help us," she said.
"I understand the decision from a marketing point of view. But it saddens me that it's no longer economically viable to declare who we are."
The issue of the name change -- toward which the PA has been shifting for more than a year -- came up at a news conference after the agency signed a lease with its first major tenant.
A Chinese firm, Vantone Industrial Co., will lease six floors. A four-page press release for the lease signing included the name "Freedom Tower" twice -- only in parentheses>>>
It was a chaotic scene Thursday afternoon in Downtown Brooklyn.
Over a dozen fire and rescue trucks swarmed the Marriott building around lunchtime, after a fire broke out on the 21st floor.
The fire turned out to be small. But the evacuation was immense.
The entire building located at 333 Adams St./350 Jay St. appeared to be evacuated. Prosecutors, city attorneys, criminals, secret-service agents, and hotel guests lined the streets surrounding Renaissance Plaza.
No serious injuries were immediately reported, but according to an FDNY spokesman, some people were treated for smoke inhalation. It appeared to be an electrical fire and not suspicious, said Anthony Nardella, director of fire safety for Brooklyn Renaissance Plaza, LLC.
However, numerous people were seen suffering from asthma attacks outside the 32-story tower. Once EMS crews arrived on the scene, those people were treated with oxygen.
Dozens of firefighters with oxygen tanks stormed the building from both entrances. Though the fire was reportedly small, the massive response was due to the nature of the building, Nardella said. Inside are offices for the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, the New York City Law Department, and the U.S. Secret Service.
What?! Not enough hoops! Well, for you basketball junkies, especially the ones going through NCAA withdrawal because there were no games for three days, we've got a spot for you. And all for a great cause.
Now on this coming Monday, there won't be any TV hoops so we want you to check out March Madness Staten Island style -- at the S.I. Firefighters' Tournament.
Danny Kenny's been running this all-day hoop marathon (two games each hour starting at 9 a.m. until the 7 p.m. championship at the CYO in Port Richmond) for 19 years, and the only thing missing is TV cameras. And maybe a few future pros.
But the heart and soul is certainly there. So is the passion ... and compassion.
As usual, all proceeds from the sale of t-shirts and 50-50 raffles -- Gene Gavin's going to get you when you walk in the door -- and Cesar Claro/Richmond County Savings Foundation's $1,000 check are headed for Jeffrey Giordano (Danny's brother-in-law who perished on 9/11) Children's Playroom at the New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center Burn Center.
When you put 12 firehouses in one house, something's got to give. Now, if we can use the word hot, or how about on fire, because that's the only way to describe Engine 157 Ladder 80, which has won this tourney the last seven years.
Tim Hynes and Brian Fitzgibbons head the Port Richmond titlists who have lots to brag about when everyone repairs to Mike Burke and Denino's to toast the champs and hear the "almost" tales at the end of the evening>>>
The Senate approved a major national-service bill Thursday that triples the AmeriCorps program to 250,000 participants and designates Sept. 11 as a "National Day of Service and Remembrance."
"Sept. 11 should not only be a day for mourning - it should be a day to think about our neighbors, our community and our country," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.
"We can take a tragic day in our nation's history and turn it into a force for good," added Schumer. "We can make it a day on which we can give back in remembrance of those who lost their lives."
President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law.
A Manhattan man nursing a grudge against the government was indicted on arson charges Thursday for torching four cars and the lobby of an upper West Side apartment building, prosecutors said.
Christopher Buxo, 54, who left crazed notes at the scenes of the February fires, was carrying a kitchen knife, a loaded pistol and gasoline when he was busted Feb. 19, prosecutors said.
After the court entered a plea of not guilty for Buxo, prosecutors said they would not oppose a report that found him mentally incompetent to stand trial. Buxo was turned over to the city Health Department.
A joint FDNY-NYPD task force busted the firebug after investigators connected a Feb. 4 blaze that consumed a Ford Winstar on Central Park West and a fire a week later that destroyed a Volvo on W.87thSt.
While executing a search warrant at Buxo's Washington Heights apartment, authorities found a sawed-off shotgun, 200 rounds of ammunition, gasoline and a day planner noting the date and time of each of the fires, prosecutors said.
Three families who lost loved ones in the 9/11 terrorist attacks head to court today to plead with a federal judge to release a million pages of documents detailing the mass murder of nearly 3,000 Americans.
Those secret papers, one Bay State family member told the Herald, are “so bad you won’t believe it.”
“It was out control,” Paul Keating, 45, said of security on Sept. 11, 2001, including at Logan International Airport in Boston where two ill-fated jets left on a collision course with infamy.
“My mother went through the most public murder you could imagine . . . and I’ve been putting up with this crap for seven years,” Keating said of his refusal to settle his case out of court>>>
An explosion blew apart the second floor of a Brooklyn home Tuesday and sparked a fire that killed the 26-year-old woman inside, officials said.
The mysterious blast tore through the walls of the two-story Flatlands home and ignited a blaze that quickly engulfed the entire structure and trapped Tamara Rawner inside, witnesses said.
"The explosion blew the window out," said neighbor Larry Feingenbaum, 59, who tried to save the frantic woman. "I heard her scream. That scream ... if you heard her scream, you had to do something.">>>
Though the side of the building was burning, firefighters quickly
raced up the ladder to reach the pregnant woman, who was gasping for air.
NY Daily News 3/24/09
Firefighter Giovanni Martinez rescued three
residents from a Brooklyn house fire Tuesday.
Firefighters braved a wall of smoke and fire Tuesday to rescue three people - including a pregnant woman - trapped on the third floor of a Brooklyn apartment house.
The rescue was especially harrowing because the Bushwick building's wooden siding caught fire, intensifying the smoke and flame as firefighters climbed a tower ladder toward the frantic residents, who were leaning out a window.
The raging inferno ignited just before 8 a.m., forcing many of the Palmetto St. building's inhabitants to run to the street in their pajamas. Some on the upper floors could not get out.
"I ran outside in my boxers and I saw fire all over the place," said Alex Castillo, who was woken by his mother's shouts.
"I heard people screaming and saw a pregnant woman leaning out over the third-floor window," Castillo said. "She was hysterical. I thought she was going to jump."
Within three minutes, several FDNY rigs pulled up to scene and discovered the building almost fully engulfed in flames>>>
Firefighters secured the men with a second rope from the roof.
They then used a ladder to reach the men and pull them to safety.
NY Daily News 3/24/09
Two window washers were left dangling 30 feet above a Brooklyn street Monday when the scaffolding they were standing on collapsed in high winds.
Antonio Rojas, 47, and Carlos Caseres, 41, were both wearing their safety harnesses, preventing them from plummeting to the Flatlands street more than three stories below.
"My first instinct was to grab the rope and stay calm," said Rojas, who has been washing windows for 26 years. "That's what you have to do ... If you lose your calmness, that's when things go wrong."
The wooden, manually operated scaffolding was connected to the roof of the Kings Highway building by a pair of ropes, one of which gave way just before 2 p.m. on the blustery early spring day.
As their frantic co-workers called 911, the two men could only pray the remaining rope would hold as they clung to it for nearly 15 minutes.
"No one wants to die like this," said Rojas. "We're lucky this time.">>>
John "Jack" Kelly, a New York City firefighter who fervently celebrated his Irish heritage, died Sunday shortly after watching the St. Patrick's Day parade in Pearl River. He was 30.
Kelly, a resident of New City, was apparently dining with friends and fellow firefighters at Joe and Joe Restaurant in Pearl River when he choked on some food, authorities said.
He was taken by ambulance to Nyack Hospital around 7 p.m.
Kelly joined the fire department more than a year ago and was stationed in Harlem, said his brother Edward of West Nyack.
A 1997 graduate of Clarkstown South High School, Kelly spent much of his free time with his "brothers" from the fire station and hanging out with his family, which included 17 nieces and nephews, his brother said>>>
Each name, slightly more than one-and-a-half inches tall, will carry the most intimate memories. All 2,982 names together, arrayed atop parapets stretching more than 1,500 feet around two great pools, will convey the vastness of the loss.
With such a range of scale and so many emotions attached, it is no wonder that one of the simplest architectural details of the new World Trade Center — the parapets around the memorial pools — has taken so long to design.
Officials with the National September 11 Memorial and Museum hope to unveil the final design of the parapets by summer. “It’s been a great learning process,” said Joseph C. Daniels, the president and chief executive. It has also been a prolonged, exacting and sometimes contentious process.
It has involved full-scale mockups at a Lower Manhattan office, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, at a warehouse in Berkeley, Calif., and a backyard in Richmond Hill, Ontario. It has required endless tinkering with the size, shape and style of letters. It has called for painstaking efforts to harness water so that it will perform just right. It has compelled constant adjustments to the parapets’ perimeters to ensure the best sight lines.
And it has meant confronting a requirement in the New York City Building Code that the parapets be exactly 42 inches high.
Each move threatened to complicate what is intended to be a stark embodiment of absence. “The guiding principle was not to have anything additive or unnecessary,” said the architect Michael Arad. His entry won the memorial design competition in 2003, after he was paired with the landscape architectural firm Peter Walker & Partners of Berkeley.
There have been so many revisions that the designers almost ran out of alphabet. “We ended up at Option Y,” Mr. Arad said>>>
An elderly Staten Island woman is dead after her home became engulfed in flames Sunday morning.
Officials say the fire started in the basement of a private home before 6 a.m. at the corner of Reno Avenue and 10th Street in New Dorp.
RuPing Li, 90, was taken to Staten Island University Hospital in cardiac arrest but was later pronounced dead. Neighbors say she lived in the area for more than 50 years.
One firefighter says he was asleep when he smelled the smoke from his home a few blocks away and called the local fire department before springing into action.
"I kicked the door open and it opened in one shot and there was a lot of smoke in there, there wasn't much smoke coming out the house until I kicked the door open. I really couldn't go that far. I went as far as I could and I tried," said Allen Callahan, Engine 245, Coney Island.
Three firefighters suffered minor injuries.
The cause of the fire is still being investigated.
The spring's brush fire season has begun on Staten Island.
And with today's windy conditions, the National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning.
Sustained winds will hover in the 15-20 mph range, with gusts reaching up to 25 mph this afternoon and evening. That, coupled with low humidity and a dry soil from a lack of major precipitation events, mean that even a spark can ignite a fire that can spread quickly.
This spring's brush fire season, as defined by the Fire Department, lasts through April 30.
If companies like AIG could somehow be fixed by cops and firefighters, we'd be in much better shape. When terrorists attacked New York City on 9/11, cops and firefighters worked around the clock, in dangerous conditions, with no days off. Afterwards, many of them enlisted in the military and fought overseas to keep their nation secure. The need for self-sacrifice was obvious and they did not hesitate to do what was asked of them.
Unfortunately, the present fix requires a different type of person: the banker. The way most of them have reacted to our modest demands, there doesn't seem to be a duty-bound bone in their bodies. More important to them than what they can offer their nation in need is whether or not they can keep millions of dollars in bonuses, paid by our taxes, for cleaning up the horrible mess they've made.
If a fire department accidentally set an occupied building on fire, you'd see its men and women working to put that fire out, ashamed and maybe working for free. The idea of demanding a huge bonus to correct their own mistake would seem vulgar to them.
Many corporate executives at AIG disagree, complaining that they have earned their expensive lifestyles and suddenly being deprived of them would be the signal to jump ship. Anything less than the millions of dollars a year they are accustomed to would make saving the economy a waste of their time. They probably wouldn't mind if we just left an envelope of cash from our paychecks with their doormen>>>
The last time the City Council held
a contentious hearing on Fire Department cuts, the
budget was already approved and it was too late to stop
them from closing four companies overnight, including
Engine Co. 161 in Staten Island's South Beach community.
With the stakes even higher this
time - 12 more companies and dozens of ambulance shifts
are now in danger - the Council held a hearing today on
the latest spending plan a full three months before its
members are set to vote on it. At a rally outside City
Hall, members of the public, firefighters and
representatives from the Uniform Firefighter Association
(UFA) made it clear that any city legislator, including
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, will suffer the consequences if
the proposal becomes a reality.
"If you close firehouses, you lose
the support of the UFA, you absolutely will lose the
support of all UFA members and every family member of
every UFA member that lives in the city of New York,"
said UFA president Steve Cassidy>>>
Firefighters responded to a Forest Hills restaurantafter a one-alarm fire broke out inside the eatery lastMonday night, Mar. 2. According to FDNY sources,the flames occurred at around 9:30 p.m. in the vicinityof Austin Street and 70th Road. On the scenewere members of Engine companies 289, 305, 319and 324; Ladder companies 125, 127, 136, 138 and151; Rescue 4; Squad Company 288 and Battalions46 and 50, under the direction of Division 14, alongwith the 112th Precinct and EMS units. No injurieswere reported. The blaze was brought under controlat around 10:30 p.m., an FDNY spokesperson said.
Several families were displaced from their Brooklyn apartments after a three-alarmfire tore through their residence last Wednesday morning, Mar. 4, it was reported.Fire Department sources said the blaze broke out at around 1:30 a.m. inside a nearbymanhole and then spread to the basement of the three-story brownstone locatedin the vicinity of Lafayette and Lewis avenues in Bedford-Stuyvesant. More than35 FDNY units responded to the scene along with the 81st Precinct and EMS units.Two firefighters and two residents were removed to a local hospital by paramedicsfor injuries not considered life-threatening. Workers from the American Red Crossof Greater New York responded later to provide assistance to the displaced families.Using five hose lines, an FDNY spokesperson said, the blaze was broughtunder control at around 2:45 a.m.
Smoke shot out of a manhole that caught fire in East Williamsburg last Thursdaymorning, Mar. 5, Fire Department sources said. Reportedly, the incident occurred ataround 11:30 a.m. inside a Con Edison manhole located on Porter Avenue nearVarick Avenue. Members of Engine companies 206 and 237, Ladder companies 112and 124, Battalion 28 and EMS units responded to the scene. No injuries werereported. Fire Department sources said that service to nearby buildings was unaffectedby the fire
Residents Evacuated After Manhole Blaze Caused Ridgewood CO Scare
Times Newsweekly 3/6/09
Families living on aRidgewood roadway wereevacuated from their homeslast Friday night, Mar. 6 aftera manhole fire caused highlevels of carbon monoxide toseep into their homes, FireDepartment sources said.
Reportedly, the incident started at around 7:40 p.m. when an underground transformer caught fire in a manhole on Stephen Street between Forest and Seneca avenues.
Residents on the same block were evacuated over a year ago after a manhole fire triggered a carbon monoxide scare on the morning of Feb. 13, 2008, as reported in the Times Newsweekly's Feb. 14, 2008 issue in an article entitled "Danger In The Air." The article is available at www.timesnewsweekly.com.
According to FDNY sources, the resulting fire caused elevated levels of the colorless, odorless and deadly gas to seep into 11 nearby homes. The blaze additionally knocked out power to several homes along the block.
Members of Engine Company 286, Ladder companies 112 and 135, Squad Company 252, Battalion 28, the 104th Precinct and EMS units responded to the scene.
In all, more than 40 people from the 11 homes were ordered to leave the location for several hours as a result of the carbon monoxide scare. No injuries were reported.
Workers from Con Edison and National Grid were called to the scene and arrived soon after to make repairs to equipment damaged by the fire.
Residents were allowed to reenter their homes at around 10 p.m. after the Fire Department determined that carbon monoxide levels had fallen to safe levels, an FDNY spokesperson said.
Nobody was injured after a one-alarm fire broke out inside a fifth-floor apartmentin a Lefrak City high-rise early on Sunday morning, Mar. 8, it was reported. FireDepartment sources said the blaze started at around 5:40 a.m. inside the apartmentbuilding located in the vicinity of Horace Harding Expressway and 99th Street.More than 15 FDNY units responded to the scene along with the 110th Precinct andEMS units. Using one hose line, an FDNY spokesperson said, the fire was broughtunder control at around 6:10 a.m.
The FDNY responded to an
all-hands fire in a French-American restaurant
Midtown Thursday, authorities said.
An explosion in the
second-floor kitchen of La Bonne Soupe sparked the
fire. The restaurant is in a 5-story building on
West 55th Street, near 6th Avenue. The restuarant is
a favorite of locals and other patrons.
WATCH A REPORT BY
LISA EVERS (VIDEO, LEFT)
Firefighters extinguished the
fire in about an hour, the AP reported.
There were no reports of
injuries, and the extent of the damage wasn't
immediately known. The FDNY is investigating the
cause of the explosion.
La Bonne Soupe takes its name
from French playwright Felicien Marceau's 1958
avant-garde comedy, which was made into a movie in
1963.
The restuarant's managers told
Fox 5's Lisa Evers that they expect to reopen in a
few weeks.
The ribbon is
cut on the new
High-Rise Simulator.
(L to R) Rabbi
Joseph Potasnik,
First Deputy
Commissioner Frank
Cruthers, Chief of
Department Salvatore
Cassano, Fire
Commissioner
Nicholas Scoppetta,
President of the
Leary Firefighters
Foundation Denis
Leary, Chairman of
the FDNY Foundation
Stephen J. Ruzow,
Chief of Operations
Patrick McNally,
Chief of Training
Thomas Galvin, Chief
of the Fire Academy
Stephen Geraghty.
As a
High-Rise Symposium played host
to hundreds of fire officials
from around the world on March
19, a new High-Rise Simulator
was dedicated at the FDNY
Training Academy on Randalls
Island.
“This is a
proud day for the Department,”
said Fire Commissioner Nicholas
Scoppetta. “In a city that
houses thousands of high-rise
buildings, this simulator is
going to become a critical toll
in the training of our
firefighters.”
The Leary
Firefighters Foundation and the
FDNY Foundation raised funds to
pay for the $4.2 million
training tool, which was
designed by FDNY firefighters>>>
Lawyers
representing New York City have
asked a federal judge to throw
out the medical claims filed by
some 4,600 firefighters, cops,
and paramedics who were 9/11
first responders, claiming they
are not entitled to workplace
protection under state labor
laws.
While New
York’s Bravest and Finest fought
smoldering
fires at Ground Zero, dug for
human remains and guarded the
toxic disaster site for months,
“The uniformed plaintiffs do not
fall within the class of
employees entitled to the
protections of the labor law,”
city lawyer James Tyrrell argues
in a motion filed in Manhattan
federal court.
Ground Zero
responders, hailed by the world
as heroes, are understandably
furious, calling the legal
maneuver “a slap in the face.”
“I’m
furious,” said ex-detective Mike
Valentin, 45, who retired on
disability from the NYPD in 2007
with severe lung disease and
other ailments. Valentin carries
an oxygen tank, sleeps with a
machine that helps him breathe,
and was recently diagnosed with
kidney disease.
“There is a
special place in hell reserved
for Mike Bloomberg,” said
Valentin, a father of three who
launched the 9/11 Police Aid
Foundation to help other ill and
struggling responders.
“The
callous indifference shown by
the mayor enrages me. It’s
really sad that the city is
protecting the contractors more
than its unformed services.”
Charleston firefighters
will take on New York
City Fire Department's
17th Battalion Team in a
hockey game Sunday to
benefit Carolina
Children's Charity. The
event is set for 7:30
p.m. at the North
Charleston Coliseum.
The
firefighter showdown
will follow a 5 p.m.
Stingrays game, and a
$10 ticket includes
admission for both
games. Carolina
Children's Charity will
receive $2 for each
ticket, but only if the
tickets are purchased by
calling 744-2248 ext.
1206 by noon Sunday.
Tickets purchased at the
box office on game day
do not benefit the
charity.
The
firefighters also will
meet at 4:30 p.m.
Saturday at O'Malley's
Irish Pub 549 King St.
for a fundraising oyster
and pig roast. Tickets
for that event cost $15
at the door.
