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Buffalo Fire Department pictures of Lt. Charles “Chip” McCarthy & Firefighter Jonathan Croom via The Buffalo News.
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Funeral information from IAFF Local 282
More about FF Jonathan Croom
More about Lt. Charles “Chip” McCarthy
If you have had a chance to listen to the audio of from yesterday’s tragic fire on Genesee Street you will come away with the impression that Lt. Charles “Chip” McCarthy of Rescue 1 wound up in the basement first as he searched for a possible victim (based on the re-interview of the original 911 callers and witnesses officials believe a body of a civilian victim could still be in the rubble of that building).
Lt. McCarthy’s mayday comes at some point after the 30-minute update by Command. As you can imagine, firefighters desperately tried to find the location of Lt. McCarthy. By all accounts one of those searching for Lt. McCarthy was Firefighter Croom of Ladder 7.
The president of IAFF Local 282 has confirmed this information with The Buffalo News, in an article written by Gene Warner and Brian Meyer. Here are excerpts:
The firefighters apparently fell through holes in the first floor while searching for a possible civilian victim.
McCarthy, assigned to a team whose members are trained to find and free trapped victims, was the first firefighter to fall through the floor.
He had depleted one oxygen tank, came out to replace it and then re-entered the building just before the accident happened, said Firefighter Vincent R. Gugliuzza, vice president of Local 282, Buffalo Professional Firefighters Association.
McCarthy pressed a distress button on his radio for help, saying, “Basement, I’m in the basement,” said Daniel M. Cunningham, president of the firefighters union.
Croom, who was working on his scheduled day off, responded to McCarthy’s mayday call and also fell through the collapsed floor, Cunningham said.
McCarthy and Croom were among a legion of firefighters responding to a 3:49 a.m. alarm who were told that someone appeared to be trapped inside the basement of the two-story brick building.
Whether there was such a person inside remained a mystery late Monday. Witnesses making the original 911 call said they heard a man scream for help, but authorities have not found another body.
Investigators late Monday still were trying to determine whether the three-alarm fire was sparked by an arsonist, a burglar trying to flee or some other cause.
Cunningham, the fire union president, said the fallen firefighters were following standard operating procedures.
“Their jobs were to search — to look for victims who were reported in that building,” he said.
Cunningham added that venturing into a burning structure can be terrifying.
“The smoke, the heat and the fear are sometimes unbearable,” he said. “You’re going somewhere where you don’t know where you’re going to end up.”
Lombardo said efforts were made to rescue the men.
“Crews made multiple, multiple attempts to try to get into the place where those firefighters were trapped. Unfortunately, they were beat back by fire at the time, as well as [by concerns] about further collapse of the floors,” he said.
The site of Monday’s tragedy is almost directly across the street from Wende Street, a block and a half from where Firefighter Mark P. Reed lost his right leg after being critically injured in an arson in June 2007. He also suffered a skull fracture, broken ribs and a punctured lung when a brick chimney from the vacant house toppled on his head and body.
Several firefighters said Reed was at the scene Monday paying his respects.
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