This week there have been a number of stories that relate to some of my favorite topics. These include free speech and social media. Here's a summary of the various news items and links to read more.
New York, New York
FDNY is dealing with a bit of an evolving controversy over an order last month from Commissioner Salvatore Cassano that banned “material presenting opinions or viewpoints” inside the firehouse. When the union complained, it prompted a revised order. The latest order still has the union riled. Here are some excerpts from an article by Al Baker in The New York Times:
Stephen J. Cassidy, the union president, consulted Ronald L. Kuby, a civil rights lawyer, and put the department on notice that he believed that the order, issued Dec. 29, was a violation of his members’ constitutional rights to free expression, even in the workplace.
He then did what he said was a first for his labor organization: He issued a memo on Monday directing roughly 8,000 firefighters simply to ignore the order from the fire commissioner, Salvatore J. Cassano.
On Wednesday, two days after Mr. Cassidy issued his memo, a Fire Department spokesman acknowledged that the order was too broadly worded, and said a new directive had been issued. The spokesman, Francis X. Gribbon, said that fire officials did not intend to keep firefighters from bringing opinion materials into the firehouse; the order was meant to prohibit the posting of opinions on any walls in the firehouses. Posting unofficial materials on bulletin boards has always been prohibited.
But the new language was of even greater concern to Mr. Cassidy, who said he would fight any effort to ban the posting of any written materials that are not official business on the walls of the city’s 350 firehouses.
My non-legal mind reminds me of a similar story I covered in 1992 in the District of Columbia. Captain Larry Watts, with the help of IAFF Local 36 and the ACLU, was successful in court fighting disciplinary action after Watts posted a political cartoon in the firehouse that depicted well known athletes with some very public baggage and a firefighter. The caption read, "Kids! Find the positive role model". The cartoon was considered a problem by some because the athletes were black. Click here to read more about Watts v. Alfred.
Jackson, Mississippi
Twenty-six of 28 recruits for the Jackson Fire Department failed a State Certification exam. So, what does that story have to do with free speech or social media? Nice of you to ask. After the word leaked out on the Facebook page of a former assistant chief, and then reported on Tuesday in the Jackson press and by my friend Bill Schumm at Firegeezer, an even more interesting story surfaced on Wednesday. Here are details from ClarionLedger.com's Therese Apel:
Jackson Fire Chief Raymond McNulty has put his firefighters on notice not to post inaccurate information or comments harmful to the department on their social network sites.
They also cannot post photos of themselves in uniform or posing with city equipment.
McNulty confirmed in an email the number of recruits receiving their certification on the first try. He, however, would not grant an interview to The Clarion-Ledger.
When asked in writing about the memo he responded, "This memo was established to make our firefighters aware of the official rules and regulations of the City of Jackson."
City spokesman Chris Mims said the city does not have a social media policy yet.
McNulty says in his memo that firefighters shouldn't publicly discuss information that could be detrimental to JFD or its employees; shouldn't post content that is inconsistent with the duties and ethics of a firefighter, such as racist or sexist comments or rumors; and shouldn't use aliases.
In addition, McNulty advises his firefighters to clearly state that what they write is their own opinion and not that of the department.
Officers are allowed to comment on issues of public concern but not personal grievances.
Firefighters also are encouraged not to post information regarding off-duty activities that may bring their reputation or that of the department into question.
South Bend, Indiana
Captain Tony Schelske faces demotion and a suspension over cell phone video he took at a January 6 apartment fire and posted on YouTube. Schelske has the right to appeal after the Board of Public Safety upheld Chief Howard Buchanon's recommendation to bust Schelske back to first-class firefighter and give him a nine-day suspension.
“I made it clear to all captains that this is something you don’t do, and he did it,” Buchanon said. “He had a task to do, and he wasn’t doing it. Instead he was shooting video.”
Buchanon said the punishment has less to do with social media and more to do with the fact he was not doing his job while he was recording the fire.
“He was supposed to be working,” he said. “You’re in special assignment to be captain. We hold you to a higher standard.”
Chief Romeo Toro has told the New York Daily News the Aviation Volunteer Fire Department will continue to respond to jobs in and near the Classon Point neighborhood of The Bronx, despite the possibility of arrest. AVFD, which has been around since 1923, has had financial problems in the past and only recently began operating again.
FDNY told Aviation to butt out after a confrontation at a bus accident on the Brunkner Expressway last Thursday. NYPD ended up detaining the chief and one of his lieutenants for 25 minutes.
Despite a very clear letter from FDNY Commissioner Salvatore Cassano Chief Toro told the Daily News, "Yes, we will risk arrest". The chief says he will only listen to an order from the mayor or the Office of Prevention and Control.
“We hereby demand that AVFD immediately cease its operations and discontinue making any representations that AVFD is authorized by the City of New York or the FDNY to provide emergency medical and firefighting services,” he (Cassano) wrote.
The volunteers are “operating without the proper training, equipment and authorizations” and are endangering the public and city firefighters, Cassano added.
“The FDNY has advised its field personnel to prohibit AVFD from operating and to contact law enforcement if necessary,” he wrote.
My friend Bill Carey at BackstepFirefighter.com found this interesting video and between the two of us we are going to give the video a lot more views than it deserves. The person taking the video thinks he has a 60 Minutes style expose. To me and many of you, we might as well be watching paint dry.
Shocking news, as noted in the description oberstd9 put with the video-
Five fire fighters of Brooklyn, NY ladder co. 255 take a joy ride in a fire truck to grocery shop at a Brooklyn Shop Rite.
While the man behind the lens knows an injustice when sees one, he doesn't know the difference between an engine company and a ladder company.
As Bill notes, read the comments with the video and you will see just out how outraged this man is.
The good news is that there aren't a lot of people joining him in his displeasure with FDNY on this one. There were only 15 views in 17 days when Bill found it.
Still, the video is a good lesson for everyone. I brought this up three weeks ago when I spoke at the graduation of Arlington County Fire Department Recruit Class 68. While talking about social media ethics, I pointed out that it isn't just what firefighters do while on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter that can cause problems. They will also be under the watchful eye of citizens with cameras on every response and everywhere they go who will be uploading what they find. This is something previous generations of firefighters just didn't have to deal with.
Yes, there were always people in the community complaining that firefighters used the fire truck to go to the grocery store. But now these folks have the visual proof and can't wait to share it with the rest of the world. It is important to be prepared for this by making sure firefighters don't confront the fire paparazzi and, in turn, make things much worse.
Also, my suggestion is fire chiefs should be proactive and confront this head on before the video vigilantes arrive. If you allow your firefighters, EMTs and paramedics to shop with the rigs, provide an explanation on your website and in community meetings. Let the people you serve know up front what your policy is and why it is that way. It will take the wind out of the sails for a lot of these people.
Personally, when I am at the grocery store I am always happy to run into the firefighters who protect me. But I am also not mad at the world thinking public servants only want to screw me and waste my tax money each and every day.
A fire on New Year's Day at 2223 Cortelyou Road in Brooklyn left nine people injured. Make sure you hear the comment from the woman at 2:58 in the video and the response. Read more.
In June, Debra Shell with the Press and Journal interviewed Emilio Hall with Pennsylvania's Steelton Fire Department about his experience as a FDNY firefighter on September 11, 2001. Hall told the reporter that he was trapped in the rubble of the collapsed World Trade Center Twin Towers for 32 hours.
Yesterday, reporter Debra Shell had a follow-up article where many, including the FDNY are saying that Hall was never a member of the FDNY. While Hall stands by his story, a former girlfriend calls him a fabricator. An FDNY member says he is representing himself as something he wasn't. And the press office for FDNY says they have never had a firefighter by his name.
In various Internet forums and the Facebook page for Steelton FD, people are not only expressing concern about Hall being a member at Steelton but are critical of the comments made to the newspaper by the department and town's leadership:
Steelton officials, including fire chief Gene Vace and Mayor Tom Acri, said they were not concerned about the allegations against Hall.
“It has no bearing on this department,” said Vance. “I could care less if he made it up, [or] if he wasn’t a fire fighter in New York. He went through training with us.”
Acri said he was surprised and saddened by the accusations, but stood by him.
“I can tell you that he works and is dedicated [to the fire company],” he said. “If he is a story-teller, there is nothing we can do about that. He is very respectful to everyone and is a good volunteer.”
But Steelton Fire Company Lt. Andy Mahalchick said last week the fire company’s board was investigating Hall’s claims. The board was awaiting hard evidence before making any decisions, he said.
This is some of the radio communications with Brooklyn from the fire Monday morning at 1102 Prospect Place in Crown Heights where Firefighter Robert Wiedmann, 38 of Rescue 2, bailed out of a window in flames after the top floor flashed.
Firefighter Wiedmann was taken to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he was in serious but stable condition Monday evening with burns over 45 percent of his body, the authorities said. Another firefighter, James Gersbeck, 52, was seriously injured as well; three other firefighters were treated for minor injuries.
This appears to be the clearest & most extensive version of the video of the escape by Firefighter Wiedmann.
The brownstone was empty, but the firefighters did not know that as they searched amid the four smoke-filled bedrooms on the top floor. Meanwhile, other firefighters prepared a hose and carried it up the stairs, Chief of Department Edward Kilduff said.
Without warning, a front room ignited, trapping Firefighters Wiedmann and Gersbeck, who were searching for residents to rescue, Chief Kilduff said. Firefighter Gersbeck made his way to the door and tumbled down the stairs, Chief Kilduff said.
Mr. Wiedmann was "literally on fire when he came out that window," said Stephen Cassidy, the president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association.
Mr. Cassidy said city budget cuts—which lowered manpower on one engine truck to four men from five—increased the response time and endangered the firefighters.
Chief of Department Edward Kilduff rejected the claim. The distance between the fire hydrant and the structure was small and "the line was in position in a sufficient amount of time," he said. Two engine trucks responded, and firefighters were spraying water on the flames six minutes after the fire was reported, he said.
FDNY Firefighters rescued one of their own earlier, pulling him "on fire" from a Brooklyn brownstone. As members searched the Crown Heights dwelling for victims, the top floor of the 3 story dwelling on Prospect Place apparently flashed, trapping at least one Rescue 2 Firefighter inside. An aerial ladder was raised to the third floor window and another Firefighter at the top of the ladder helped get him out. The FF was burning and the FF on the ladder hit him on his back to knock down the fire.
The injured R-2 Firefighter was treated and taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell with burns over 40% of his body, including his face, head and hands and is critical-but breathing on his own.The brownstone turned out to be empty as a family of 6 lives there but was not home. 4 other firefighters were hurt and are being treated at local hospitals-1 in serious condition and the other 2 stable.
At this time, 1 Firefighter has critical, 3rd degree hand burns and multiple other 2nd and 3rd degree spot burns (45% overall) and will be in surgery. The 2nd most serious Firefighter has several 2nd and 3rd degree burns and is doing well.
Earlier:
Fire this morning just after 9:00 AM at 1102 Prospect Place has left two firefighters from FDNY in the Cornell Burn Center in serious condition. Three other firefighters were also hurt. Witnesses told Trevor Kapp and Barry Paddock of the New York Daily News that the top floor of the brownstone erupted in a fireball. It trapped at least one firefighter inside who came out head first and on fire. He is reported to have burns over about 30 percent of his body. Here's more from the New York Daily News:
“He was about to jump out the window,” said neighbor Joseph Ward, 29.
Rescue workers extended a ladder to the third floor window. A firefighter at the top of the ladder helped the trapped smoke-eater, flames shooting off his body, crawl out to safety.
Perched at the top of the ladder, the rescuer pounded on his injured comrade’s back to subdue the flames. Debris from the still-burning building showered down around them.
Firefighters came to the rescue of two police officers outnumbered in Mariners Harbor today (Tuesday), in a scene so chaotic that New York’s Bravest employed a truck-mounted deluge gun — a water cannon — to fend off the marauding group of teens.
The scene unfolded at about 3:30 p.m. in front of 83 Harbor Rd., where a large group of teenagers had amassed to confront a teenage girl who lives in the residence.
By the time it was over, two officers were sent to Richmond University Medical Center, West Brighton, for treatment, and nine teens ended up under arrest, said Inspector John Denesopolis, the 120th Precinct's commanding officer.
It all started as a group numbering about 50 that started yelling. Someone called 911 and a couple of officers were dispatched.
They were apparently overrun by the crowd and the officers were reportedly knocked down.
It all unfolded on the same block as an engine house. The crew got in their truck and used the cannon to disperse the crowd. Back-up arrived and police reportedly arrested nine teens.
The description with the video above says this "training" with Johnny Carson occurred at Randall's Island. Fire buff extraordinaire Vito Maggiolo says otherwise:
At the time that was shot, the FDNY training academy was located on what was than known as Welfare Island, nicknamed “the rock” by FDNY firefighters. It was later moved to Randalls Island when a housing development was built on Welfare Island, which was then renamed Roosevelt Island.
Welfare Island got its name because it had several hospitals for the poor, people with terminal diseases, and a mental institution. They were put there because of the isolated nature of the island, which at one point could only be accessed by a vehicle elevator from the Queensboro (59th St.) Bridge. For years there was an engine company on the island, due to its isolated nature. If a truck company was needed, it could not fit on the elevator, so they had to load ground ladders and whatever other tools on a sanitation truck that could fit on the elevator.
Eventually a bridge was built from Queens to the Island, which was considered to be part of Manhattan, and had Manhattan box numbers, but all responding companies came from Queens.
In March of 1963, a bus carrying hospital staff on the Island went off the roadway into the East River. A number of employees were trapped and drowned. This incident was a motivating factor in FDNY eventually developing trained scuba teams, although it took almost two decades to do so.
Many of you have seen Better Angels: The Firefighters of 9/11 at places like Firehouse Expo (above). On Thursday, the exhibit begins six days on display at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC. If you would like to see it again, or have friends who didn't get the chance, the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation has a special viewing for the fire service on Sunday, October 9 from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM.
If you want to attend on Sunday you must contact Beverly Donlon at 301-447-1603 or email her at bdonlon@firehero.org.
Below is the official invitation.
THE NATIONAL FALLEN FIREFIGHTERS FOUNDATION CORDIALLY INVITES ALL MEMBERS OF DC AREA FIRE DEPARTMENTS FOR A PRIVATE VIEWING OF
BETTER ANGELS: THE FIREFIGHTERS OF 9/11
RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2011
10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Emmitsburg, Maryland – (October 4, 2011) In grateful appreciation to all members of Washington Metropolitan area fire departments, the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation has arranged a private viewing of the exhibit Better Angels: The Firefighters of 9/11 on Sunday, October 9 from 10:00 am – 1:00 pm at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC. Any interested fire department members and their families are welcome to attend. Anyone interested in attending must contact Beverly Donlon at 301-447-1603 or bdonlon@firehero.org by 9:00 am Friday.
The inspirational exhibit honors the 343 FDNY firefighters who died on September 11, 2001. In recognition of National Fire Prevention Week, it will be on public display for the first time at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC, October 6 – 11. Better Angels: The Firefighters of 9/11 features individual monochromatic oil portraits of the fallen firefighters on 6” x 4” charred blocks of wood installed on a wall nearly 21 feet long. The exhibit is sponsored by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) and Colorado artist, Dawn Siebel.
Siebel, formerly from New York City, began creating Better Angels in 2005 as a tribute to those 343 firefighters. Her goal was to display it in a public venue as an expression of appreciation to all members of the fire service. In 2009, Siebel and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation forged a partnership to bring the exhibit to a broader audience of firefighters and the public.
With support from the Department of Justice, the exhibit has expanded to include information about the department’s Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Program (PSOBs) for survivors of firefighters who died in the line of duty. In addition to the remembrance of the firefighters from 9/11, the 30th anniversary of the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial is being recognized with the display of names of all firefighters who have died in the line of duty from 1980 to 2009
Congressman Peter T. King (R-NY), chairman of the Homeland Security Committee was instrumental in helping the Foundation and Ms. Siebel bring Better Angels to Washington for this public display. Public exhibit hours are Thursday, October 6 from 11 am – 7 pm; Friday October 7 from 8 am – 7 pm; Saturday, October 8 from 10 am – 1 pm; Monday, October 10 from 8 am – 7 pm; and Tuesday, October 11 from 8 am – 1 pm. For more information about Better Angels: The Firefighters of 9/11, visit www.firehero.org or www.betterangels911.com..
I was a little slow this week in editing the video I shot for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation at Sunday's 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb in Greenbelt, Maryland. But it is finally here. Thanks to all of those who volunteered some long hours to put these climbs together across the country. Gloria Lowe and Kellie Bornman, with support from PGFD, were in charge of this one.
My experience in attending (notice I said "attending") four of these climbs since March is that it is a really positive way to remember the 343 from FDNY who were killed ten-years-ago. Many of the firefighters (and the public in some cases, like Greenbelt) who I have talked with after these events are all ready to do it again next year.
The stair climbs, which raise money for NFFF, would not have occurred if not for the ideas and leadership of a group of firefighters who have expanded this nationally and even internationally. They are Oren Bersagel-Briese, Brian Brush, Shawn Duncan, Scott Eckels and Josh Smith. Keeping all of this straight at NFFF (as he does for so many projects) is Billy Hinton. Normally behind the scenes, Billy makes a cameo in the video above.
Also, a special thanks to Zach Green at MN8 Products who very quickly produced and quietly sent along 343 of his illuminating helmet bands to the climbers in Greenbelt. They were each numbered and dated to mark the event. Number one was presented to Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department Chief Marc Bashoor, who climbed on Sunday.
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11, State Farm partnered with award-winning director Spike Lee to film a touching tribute to thank the heroes of New York. Nearly 150 school children (ages 8-11) from the New York City area visited four firehouses and thanked the firefighters through song.
Download the full-track of Empire State of Mind (Part II) from iTunes here: http://st8.fm/ON2. Proceeds from the download benefit the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (http://www.firehero.org/).
Credits
Artist: James Davis Jr. & The Children of New York City
Song: Empire State Of Mind (Part II)
Album: Empire State Of Mind (Part II) 9/11 Tribute
About a month after the events of September 11, 2001 I was asked by journalist Allison Gilbert to contribute my experiences at the Pentagon on that day to a book called Covering Catastrophe: Broadcast Journalists Report September 11. While I knew I was only one of many TV and radio reporters and anchors who would be contributing to the book, and Allison would only be using a couple of blurbs, it was an opportunity for me to write a chronology of the day and put a few thoughts down.
Below is that account. It is a view of September 11 through the eyes of a TV reporter who arrived on Washington Boulevard in front of the Pentagon helipad six-minutes after impact. YouTube has some of the TV coverage from that day broadcast by my colleagues at WUSA-TV in Washington. I have added those clips at the appropriate times.
I conclude with a postscript written 40-days after the attacks that looks at the public's perception of firefighters following the sacrifice made by 343 members of the Fire Department of New York.
September 11, 2001
8:52 AM: Spending time with my son is always the best way to start the day. Sam, almost two years old, is eating his breakfast. I bring my toast into the den to sit with him. The television is on so we can do what we usually do in the morning, watch my wife, Hillary Howard, Sam’s mom, do the weather on WUSA-TV. Instead of the “Early Show” ending to make way for local news, I see the open to a “CBS News Special Report”. I turn the sound up, but don’t need Bryant Gumbel to tell me that something is very wrong at one of the World Trade Center towers. The thick, black smoke pouring out of many windows and from the roof makes it very clear this is a major disaster in the making. Gumbel says there is a report that a plane hit the building. Those words send me out of the room and upstairs to quickly finish getting dressed.
9:03 AM: I occasionally glance at the TV upstairs. A little slow to comprehend some of what it going on, it dawns on me that this appears to be a crystal clear day. I am starting to wonder if this plane crash is really an accident. As I think about calling the newsroom to suggest we might be dealing with a terrorist attack of some sort, any doubts I had are immediately erased. My head quickly turns toward to the TV as I hear a woman say to Byrant Gumbel, “Oh, there is another one! Another plane just hit! Oh, my gosh! Another plane has hit! Another building! Flew right into the middle of it. Explosion.”
It hit me instantly that our lives have suddenly changed.
9:05 AM: On the phone to the station, I talk to Dave Roberts, our news director. I am convinced that if the people who did this were organized enough to quickly hit two targets like the World Trade Center towers, Washington would be next. We decide I will head into town to start looking around for increased security measures and be ready if another attack occurs.
9:10 AM: No time for our normal goodbye ritual. I give Sam a quick kiss and hug. Sam says something about “Jay Jay”. “Jay Jay the Jet Plane”, Sam’s favorite TV show, comes on soon. Not knowing what he may have already seen on TV this morning, I tell him calmly that “Jay Jay” is having a bad day. With the uncertainty of what was ahead, I didn’t want to leave Sam. I knew, though, he was in good hands with Glenda, the woman who takes care of him while we are at work.
9:15 AM: Realizing my good friend, Dan Patrick, our night assignment manager, is probably asleep and has no idea what is going on, I wake him. Dan doesn’t believe me when I describe the events of the morning along with my concern that Washington is next. Certainly I would have thought this was one of his sick practical jokes if the situation were reversed. Hanging up, I’m not sure he is convinced that this is for real.
9:25 AM: My first stop, the State Department. I circle the block and notice some extra officers being deployed around the building. Other street activity appears normal. Checking out the Pentagon never enters my mind.
9:38 AM: East bound on Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House, I turn north on 17th Street. At that moment the scanners in my car come alive. On numerous police and fire radio frequencies, people are yelling that a plane hit the Pentagon. Making a fast U-turn, I see the smoke rising across the Potomac River. I get the assignment desk on the phone. It’s a bad connection. I yell into the phone, “Pentagon, Pentagon, Pentagon. Send everyone to the Pentagon. I should be there soon."
I carefully bust a few lights on southbound 17th Street. Making a right turn, traffic is light on westbound Independence Avenue.
9:41 AM: Anchors Mike Buchanan and Andrea Roane break into CBS coverage to report that there has been an apparent plane crash at the Pentagon. They have distant, but clear pictures of the Pentagon ablaze from our rooftop camera in Rosslyn.
9:43 AM: There is also little traffic heading outbound on the Memorial Bridge. Across the river, I now have a distant view of the Pentagon. The very black smoke I am seeing is surely caused by the fuel, now burning, that was in the plane’s tanks. I call the control room to try and get on the air, but the call cuts out as the anchors lead to me.
9:44 AM: Somehow I end up on southbound Washington Boulevard directly in front of the Pentagon helipad. That is good news, but for the moment it does me no good because there is wireless gridlock. I am unable to get a phone call out.
9:46 AM: I have my home video camera out and on the tripod, rolling off a few shots. The phone still isn’t working.
9:48 AM: Walking down Washington Boulevard is Heather Cabot a recently hired reporter for WUSA. She tells me her phone isn’t getting out either. I ask her to take over my camera and I will work on trying to get a phone call to the station. Heather tells me she is with photographer Mike Trammel. I look back to see Trammel and put my camera away.
9:52 AM: Heather’s phone finally gets through. I describe the scene as firefighters from Ft. Meyer and National Airport put the first water and foam on the burning Pentagon. Some people are looking at the sky, making sure another plane isn’t approaching. I suggest to Heather, that it is probably a good idea for us to do the same. Amazingly traffic on northbound Washington Boulevard has not been blocked and drivers are just whizzing by the burning Pentagon as they head to work.
A familiar red van pulls a few feet past us. It is one of our microwave vans with Bruce Bookholtz at the wheel. I am a bit amazed that, with no communication, we all end up at the same spot.
We hear a number of small pops and explosions. I am guessing those are tires popping from the vehicles that were parked against the building and are now burning, or possibly some small canisters exploding. Among the vehicles on fire is the new crash/rescue fire truck, belonging to the Ft. Meyer Fire Department. It is stationed at the Pentagon and is routinely on hand for helicopter landings and takeoffs, in case of an emergency. It is a fire truck designed for just this rare event, a plane crash, and it can’t be used.
9:55 AM: Heather tells me to look down on the street around us. I was so intent on watching the burning Pentagon, I hadn’t noticed there are what appear to be small pieces from the airplane at my feet. I had already seen the large amount of debris scattered on the Pentagon lawn, but so far no piece is large enough to be easily identified as an airplane part.
9:57 AM: Our first live video is on the air. You see flames crawling up the familiar face of the Pentagon along with some of the first victims as they are carried away from the building.
9:59 AM: I am on the air with Michael Kelly, an eyewitness Heather pulled out of the crowd. Kelly was driving on nearby I-395 when he saw the plane take aim on the Pentagon.
10:00 AM: Anchor Andrea Roane interrupts me, “Dave, Dave, Dave. We want to break in, because we want to go back to New York, where Dan Rather is anchoring our coverage, where one of the towers at the World Trade Center has collapsed”.
These words stop me in my tracks for a moment. I have no TV monitor to see this for myself. Just Andrea’s words. It doesn’t compute in my brain. I had been a firefighter. I had studied high-rise firefighting. There had been a number of major high-rise fires throughout the world that burned for many hours. To my knowledge there had never been a catastrophic collapse of an entire building. This was just one of many things happening today that no one has ever had to deal with.
Knowing how aggressive New York firefighters are, I realize there must be scores of dead rescuers. The last pictures I saw out of New York were from an hour ago. Even then it was pretty apparent, from the amount of fire, that anyone at the impact points and above had little chance of survival.
10:05 AM: They come back to me for our first interview with someone who was in the Pentagon at the time of the attack. Two or three men on stretchers pass by us. It is our first close-up look at the injured and they are severely, if not critically burned over a good portion of their bodies. These victims are flown out by helicopter to a hospital burn unit. Their lives will never be the same.
10:10 AM: A Virginia State Trooper starts moving everyone back. There is concern another plane is coming toward the Pentagon. We don’t move.
10:15 AM: As they come back to our live shot, five floors suddenly collapse around the jet's impact point. There is now a large gash on the west side of the Pentagon.
10:18 AM: People start running away from the Pentagon. This time, FBI agents are telling us another plane is just minutes out. They order us to move immediately. I am able to get in a few quick words, attempting to explain to Mike and Andrea what is happening, before the transmitter is turned off and the live truck’s mast starts coming down.
10:28 AM: We move just a short distance off Washington Boulevard and down the ramp to Columbia Pike. As Bruce tries to re-establish a signal, I hear through my earpiece that the second tower in New York has collapsed. I just can’t imagine what it going on in Manhattan. The death toll must be staggering. I recall my wife once telling me her grandfather hauled truckloads of steel used to build the Twin Towers. Now those buildings don’t exist.
10:32 AM: We are again feeding live pictures of the burning Pentagon.
10:36 AM: Witnesses are giving different descriptions of the plane that hit the building. Some say it is an American Airlines 757, while others believe it was a business jet. The fire is still burning out of control.
10:38 AM: Mike Buchanan asks me if I have seen any large pieces of an airplane at the scene. As I answer this question, he interrupts me,“Hold on Dave. Hold on just a second. We’ve got a bulletin from AP. A large plane has just crashed in Western Pennsylvania.”
Mike also reads an AP report about a car bomb going off at the State Department. We are just across the river from State and we didn’t hear an explosion.
10:42 AM: An F-16 makes a low pass near the Pentagon. That, along with the plane crash in Pennsylvania, makes me think there was something to the threats that forced us move away from the building. I notice a large group of people huddled under the Washington Boulevard overpass.
10:52 AM: A Lt. Colonel with Air Force Public Affairs passes our location. We snag him. He urges people to keep far away from the Pentagon. If you have loved ones you can’t account for, he asks that you not come to the Pentagon. He has no idea of the number of dead or injured. Not much in the way of information, but it is the first official word.
WUSA anchorman Gordon Peterson, who was originally sent to nearby National Airport for a flight to New York, arrives at our location.
10:54 AM: Mike and Andrea confirm there was no car bomb at the State Department. A little bit of good news.
11:06 AM: Gordon interviews Mike Walter, a television reporter for “USA Today Live”. Mike, on his way to work in Rosslyn, witnessed the Pentagon crash and offers the most vivid description so far.
11:10 AM: We are again ordered to move our live truck further away from the Pentagon.
11:31 AM: Our shot is back up. This time, from a hill in front of the Quick Mart. This Citgo, looks like a normal service station, but it is exclusively for use by military personnel.
11:39 AM: The fire is spreading. Suddenly there are flames showing in a number of windows far from the point of impact.
People again start moving quickly from the Pentagon. There is more talk of another hijacked plane heading our way.
11:52 AM: Again, more people rush from the Pentagon.
12:16 PM: I listen to Dan Patrick, with a phone report, describe his attempts to get from Northern Virginia to the TV station in Northwest Washington. Dan says he had to show identification to a police officer and explain his business in the city. Only then was he allowed to cross Key Bridge into Georgetown. The city is in lockdown.
12:18 PM: Gordon notices an ambulance convoy from the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad pull up along Columbia Pike. It was a repeat of a scene I had witnessed, just on the other side of the Pentagon, almost 20 years earlier. The same Maryland squad sent a similar contingent after Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the 14th Street Bridge on January 13th, 1982.
12:20 PM: If I am not convinced how much turmoil there is in the country from these attacks, this does it. Mike and Andrea announce Disney World is being evacuated.
12:28 PM: A Navy public affairs officer officially confirms what has been painfully obvious. Besides the dead on the aircraft, Pentagon workers are dead inside the building. He has no idea how many people didn’t get out.
12:32 PM: Talking on the air with Mike and Andrea, it still isn’t clear which of the four hijacked jets smashed into the Pentagon. Right now, American Airlines believes the hijacked flight from Dulles crashed into one of the towers in New York.
Police move everyone, including the news media, off the hillside. Bruce pulls the truck around to the other end of the service station lot. This fourth move winds up being our last. It becomes home for the better part of two weeks.
1:19 PM: The first official briefing from the Pentagon. Rear Admiral Craig Quigley, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, announces that this was “a full assault on the United States of America”. The admiral says there was no way to prepare for an attack like this. I am shaking my head at the fact that the spokesman for the military headquarters of the United States of America is forced to talk to the world from a service station parking lot.
1:30 PM: CNN Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre joins me on the air for a few minutes. Our first time working together was at WTOP radio, 20 years ago, covering the Air Florida plane crash. Jamie says they always anticipated a terrorist attack at the Pentagon, but figured it would be on the other side of the building where all the top brass is located.
Off camera, Jamie tells me that just yesterday his son’s class in middle school had a discussion about the bombing in Oklahoma City. Jamie’s son told the class he always worries about his dad being hurt by an attack like this, because his dad works at the Pentagon. Jamie tried getting word to the school to let his son know he was okay.
1:50 PM: Andrea announces that the Urban Search and Rescue Team from Fairfax County, known as Virginia Task Force 1, has been activated and will be at the Pentagon shortly.
American Airlines now says they aren’t sure where Flight 77 ended up.
WUSA-TV's Mike Trammel's shot of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (third from the right) helping carry one of the injured from the Pentagon to a waiting ambulance.
1:56 PM: Admiral Quigley sets the tone for his second briefing by saying “you are going to have a lot more questions than I have answers.” Quigley doesn’t have an answer to the one question all of us are asking. He can only say, “we know there are casualties.”
He tells us Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was among the Pentagon workers hurrying from the building after the explosion. Rumsfeld helped the injured for about 15 minutes, getting several people onto stretchers. Then he went back inside to the National Military Command Center. The command center is reportedly smoky, but not damaged. (NOTE: Approaching the one-year anniversary of the attack, CNN's Vito Maggiolo contacted me after looking at the raw video from September 11 shot by WUSA-TV photojournalist Mike Trammel. While many people had viewed that video, and all of it played out in front my own eyes, Vito was the only person to notice that one of the men carrying a stretcher with one of the first victims removed from the Pentagon was Secretary Rumsfeld.)
2:10 PM: Virginia Task Force 1 arrives. Normally Fairfax County’s Urban Search and Rescue Team is sent to some far off land by way of military transport. This time it was just a quick drive down Interstate 66 to the county on its eastern border.
2:23 PM: WUSA Photographer Greg Guise is able to provide some details surrounding the hijacked jet that went down in Pennsylvania. Greg grew up a few miles from the crash site and has business interests in the community. Greg relays a description of the scene from a radio engineer friend in Somerset County.
2:43 PM: For the past few hours we’ve seen no ambulances leave the area with lights and siren. We’re pretty certain that anyone alive is already being treated. Now reporter Jennifer Ryan, at the Virginia Hospital Center, confirms no more victims are expected from the Pentagon.
2:49 PM: Mike and Andrea report it’s now fairly clear the plane wreckage at the Pentagon is from American Airlines Flight 77 out of Dulles.
2:55 PM: Rear Admiral Stephen Pietropaoli, U.S. Navy Office of Information, tells us that in the recently renovated wedge of the Pentagon, where the attack occurred, there is blast resistant glass on the windows. In the days to come we hear from many who believe that this very expensive glass saved lives.
3:53 PM: Now briefing us at the Citgo press center, Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clark and Defense Protective Service Chief John Jester. Jester tells us the impact from the jet extends through to the C ring, the middle of the 5 rings of the Pentagon. All we see from our location, is that a portion of the E ring, the outer most portion of the Pentagon, has crumbled.
Clark admits she can’t confirm that all members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are accounted for. That news is a bit unsettling. We also hear about a Navy captain who burned his hands rescuing others. Clark says that man is already back from the hospital and wants to be put to work again, helping at the Pentagon.
4:12 PM: Rumors have been spreading that the U.S. military brought down the hijacked plane in Pennsylvania. Rear Admiral Craig Quigley says, “That didn’t happen. I cannot explain to you the cause of the crash of the airplane near Pittsburgh, but it was not engagement by a U.S. fighter aircraft.”
The Pentagon now confirms all the Joint Chiefs are accounted for.
4:54 PM: The second Urban Search and Rescue Team arrives. This one is from Montgomery County, Maryland.
5:04 PM: I see International Association of Firefighters General President, Harold Schaitberger and his press person, George Burke arrive at the Citgo. I grab Harold for a live interview. Harold has been in close touch with his people in New York. We learn for the first time that more than 200 New York firefighters probably perished when the towers collapsed. He calls firefighters “our domestic soldiers”. Schaitberger says the civilian death toll will be in the thousands. Off camera he lets me know that much of FDNY’s command staff was lost, including the Chief of the Department and the head of Special Operations.
5:36 PM: Harold Schaitberger joins me again with the story of two Ft. Meyer firefighters who were at the Pentagon when the crash occurred. They were standing near the fire truck we saw burning this morning. Both men were knocked down and injured by the force of the crash. They helped rescue a group of people through some of the office windows, before the firefighters themselves were hospitalized.
6:42 PM: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield briefs the press. For the first time since the crash, the press conference is held inside the Pentagon. I watch it from our van. Pushed for a body count, Rumsfeld says, “It will not be a few”. The Pentagon “will be in business tomorrow”.
8:45 PM: New information has been slow in coming, but marching up Columbia Pike with the television lights reflecting off his orange vest is a member of Montgomery County’s Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Team. Captain Scott Graham gives us the first solid information about the fire and rescue efforts. Scott becomes a lifeline for information in the days to come.
Despite the large fire still burning, Graham says the USAR team members are always optimistic about finding people alive. He says, “We have to look at it as a rescue effort for us. We have to look at it as a very unstable building. And our job, pretty much, is to take the name of the Pentagon off the outside of it and go in and rescue the people that are in there”.
9:52 PM: Another familiar face shows up at the Citgo. Ed Plaugher is the fire chief of Arlington County. The Pentagon is in Arlington County, Virginia and Chief Plaugher is the man in charge of the fire and rescue operations. None of the other reporters nearby seem to know who Plaugher is, or if they do, they don’t care. Ed joins me live at 10:00 PM with the first solid news about the loss of life at the Pentagon. There are no figures as of yet, but the Pentagon has given him a range to work with. Plaugher says it is believed that anywhere from 100 to 800 people work in the area where the impact occurred. While that is fairly large range, it lets us know that the death toll will likely be in the hundreds at the Pentagon, as compared to the thousands presumed dead in New York. Plaugher’s guess is, when it is over, the number at the Pentagon will be in the low hundreds.
Plaugher later receives some heat when his statements are taken out of context. Some news reports claim Plaugher estimated the death toll at 800. Days later we learn that 125 were killed on the ground and 64 perished aboard Flight 77.
On another topic Chief Plaugher says, “To be honest with you, we always were afraid of the Pentagon as being a target, but never in our wildest dreams to this extent. I am still in disbelief.”
11:03 PM: Fire has broken through in at least four places along the Pentagon roof. Chief Plaugher says aggressive interior firefighting operations will cease until daylight. But, crews overnight, will continue to pour in water from the outside to keep the fire from spreading further.
I relay a phone conversation with Scott Graham a few minutes before our 11:00 PM newscast. Scott and most of the USAR team members from Montgomery and Fairfax Counties worked very closely with Deputy Chief Ray Downey from the Fire Department of New York. Downey, commander of FDNY’s Special Operations, is unaccounted for after the towers collapsed. Scott says Downey commanded all the USAR teams in Oklahoma City after the bombing there. He says Downey wrote the book on urban search and rescue. Skills Downey taught will be utilized in New York and Arlington by hundreds of rescuers in the difficult days to come. His voice cracking, Scott tells me, “We lost a damn good man”.
We lost a lot of good men and women today.
October 27, 2001
11:15 PM: As I am looking back at September 11th, I have just spent a week covering the deaths of two Washington, D.C. postal workers, from inhalation anthrax. Others are hospitalized because of anthrax that was sent through the U.S. Mail. No one knows how this story will play out.
There is a lot of uncertainty since September 11th. Our war efforts, our security in public places, our ability to travel safely by air, our economic future. Like all parents, Hillary and I worry over what this will mean for our young son.
This much I’m sure of. Through the thick smoke hanging over New York and Washington, it became clear that some remarkable people walk among us.
Some are just ordinary citizens who put other people’s lives ahead of their own. Staying behind, trying to make sure everyone gets out.
Others are paid to protect us. But I don’t think anyone believes for a moment that a police officer, paramedic or firefighter’s modest salary is enough to encourage someone to walk into the places that these men and women did on September 11th. It takes much more than money. It takes heart, and courage, and a belief you can make a difference.
I know firefighters the best. Six years in a busy volunteer company during my youth, and almost 30 years making the fire service my beat as a reporter, have given me some perspective.
In many big cities, including our Nation’s Capital, the fire departments have long taken a back seat when it comes to funding. Citizens who can tell you how many times the police patrol car comes down their block, or how many officers are walking the beat, have no idea how many firefighters are on duty in the neighborhood fire station. Political leaders know this to be true and through the years have made drastic cuts in fire protection, often without protest from the public.
Through the years, I have reported many stories where citizens and firefighters have died because of these cuts. Just last week an understaffed ladder company became an issue in Houston, Texas, after a fire captain died in a high-rise apartment building fire.
Firefighters are can-do people. Their skills at making things work under adversity often hides from the public the shortcomings in their staffing, equipment and facilities.
Some of the good that has come from the sacrifices made by the 343 members of FDNY who died on September 11th, is the recognition, by the public, of what firefighters really do.
A recent trip to Arlington County Fire Station #2 brought this home. The firehouse is covered with cards and letters from all over the world. Many are from school children, with drawings of the firefighters in action at the Pentagon and World Trade Center. All say thanks.
Veterans of more than 20 years in the fire service are astounded by the reaction these days as they drive through local streets. People stop and wave. When the firefighters walk into a building in uniform, they are applauded.
On October 7th, I was at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Just two hours before military action in Afghanistan began, President Bush told the stories of some of the 99 domestic soldiers who died in the line of duty in the United States last year. I watched as spouses and children received a flag and a red rose, and heard a bell toll in honor of their loved one, our hero.
I have forced myself on most days since September 11th to read the New York Post, Daily News and Times and the accounts of the daily funerals of New York firefighters. It is difficult to read about the pain their wives and children are going through. It is the least, though, that we can do. It is important to remember this unbelievable sacrifice.
My hope is that people all over the United States are paying very close attention to these same stories of heroism. My hope is that they don’t forget these stories when someone is trying to save a little money and close down their local firehouse.
Right now when Sam sees a fire truck he says, “Evan”. “Revvin’ Evan” is the animated fire engine on that “Jay Jay the Jet Plane” cartoon show he loves. When Sam is old enough, I will make sure he knows a lot more about firefighters. I will make sure Sam understands exactly who those people were climbing up the clogged, smoke filled, stairways, as he sat in his high chair, watching the first pictures transmitted from New York, at 8:52 AM, on September 11th, 2001.
Tomorrow, most of us will pause and reflect at some point on where we were ten years ago, what it means and think of those who were lost. For firefighters it will be a time to honor the 343 from FDNY who died trying to save others when our country was attacked. Paying tribute to those firefighters is the goal behind the 9-11 Memorial Stair Climbs we've been telling you about for quite some time.
We've shared with you the climbs that have occurred this year at FDIC, CFSI, Firehouse Expo (in the video below) and FRI. Tomorrow there will be climbs like this in dozens of locations across the country (and one in Canada). Firefighters, and in some cases the public, will be climbing the equivalent of 110 flights to represent the climb of the firefighters at the World Trade Center towers. There are still some climbs where the registration is open. Check out one near you and join in this experience. Or, just show up to support your fellow firefighters. The proceeds benefit the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.
A STATter911.com reader alerted us to this much better video of the attempt to remove a motorcyclist from under a car in Brooklyn on Thursday morning. This is the one where a member of the NYPD's Emergency Services Unit (ESU) tries to lift the car off of 21-year-old Karam Rampersaud using hydraulic spreaders under the rear of the Ford Taurus but the car comes crashing back down. New York officials have told reporters that Rampersaud died because of the original accident and not the mishap with the spreaders.
Here's what I see in this latest clip. (Feel free to correct me if I miss something or use the wrong terminology, particularly when it comes to ESU.).
This video begins more than three minutes before firefighters and police arrive. Engine 225 and Ladder 107 are on the scene first. Two firefighters from the engine walk over to evaluate the scene. One takes a close-up look at the victim and the other appears to set the emergency brake on the car. The officer from Ladder 107 comes up, takes a quick view and speaks to his crew. They appear to immediately begin setting up for air bag operations.
Forty seconds after the arrival of the firefighters an ESU REP (Radio Emergency Patrol) vehicle arrives followed about 15 seconds later by an ESU truck (similar to a heavy rescue squad). Within 50 seconds of their arrival ESU is deploying the spreaders under the rear of the Taurus as the firefighters appear to be continuing to set airbags.
Only a minute after he pulls up on the scene, the ESU officer already has the back raised (far from the four feet witnesses described), but seconds into the lifting the vehicle comes off the spreaders and slams back down. It looks like a bit of a close call for an ESU member on the drivers side of the vehicle placing cribbing (the same officer also appears to have moved aside FDNY equipment placed on that side of the vehicle).
After a bit of commotion the ladder officer appears to talk with two of the ESU officers and airbag operations continue with involvement of both firefighters and police officers.
At 9:45 into the video, about 6:40 after FDNY's arrival, the rescuers begin pulling the victim from under the car.
The incident has many in our comments section talking about the working relationship between FDNY and the police department's ESU. There have been some very public battles through the years.
Below is a NYPD video called Inside the NYPD: Emergency Services Unit.
I have been looking unsuccessfully on the web for a detailed listing of primary responsibilities for ESU and the official working relationship between ESU and FDNY at scenes similar to his one.
UPDATE: A STATter911.com reader has sent along a document (2009 version) outlining the Citywide Incident Management System (CIMS) for New York. It is attached. It lists the "primary agency" for auto extrication as "NYPD/FDNY (First to arrive)".
FDNY is listed alone as the "primary agency" for confined space rescue, elevator incident or emergency, entrapment/impalement, fire and structural collapse.
An ESU REP at a recent fire in Brooklyn. Click above for the video.
Both the FDNY and the NYPD were on the scene of an accident in Brooklyn yesterday that is making headlines in New York. It happened around 8:45 AM
on Loring Avenue and Forbell Street in East New York when 21 year old, Karam Rampersaud, on a motorcyle, was run over by a Ford Taurus and became trapped underneath the vehicle.
From the video it appears an NYPD Emergency Services Unit crew member is handling the lifting of the vehicle when the car suddenly comes back down.
Police and fire officials have been giving indications to reporters that Rampersaud died from the injuries during the original crash.
This is a fire on Friday at 9:45 AM at 3504 Rochambeau Avenue on the corner of East Gun Hill Road in the Bronx. Three residents and three firefighters were hurt. Click here for news coverage.
Click the image above to watch early video from from gifterphotos on YouTube of a fire yesterday at 3904 Fort Hamilton Parkway in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn. The photographer pulls up in the early stages of the fire inside a commercial garage. Watch closely at the bottom left of the screen at 2:50 in the video when a firefighter trying to get onto the roof loses his footing and takes a tumble. One firefighter was transported with a broken ankle. News reports indicate a dozen firefighters were hurt.
As many of you know, the new James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act does not cover cancer. But the administrator of the World Trade Center Health Program is charged with making regular studies to see if the data shows that cancer can be linked to those who worked at Ground Zero. The first review was released today and it indicates that, so far, the evidence isn't there to put cancer on the list of covered illnesses.
Advocates for 9/11 responders were disappointed, but latched onto the promise of further review.
"They couldn't find the evidence, but we have the evidence and we have the statistics," said John Feal, a 9/11 worker who runs the FealGood Foundation.
He pointed to the most tragic proof possible: "We have the funerals," Feal said. "I've been to 53 funerals, and 51 of them were for cancer."
He's counting on several studies being done currently to confirm his belief, including at least one that he expected would be finished in the early fall.
For the past six years Dawn Siebel has lived this project, Better Angels: The Firefighters of 9/11. The artist painted pictures of each of the 343 firefighters of FDNY who were lost on September 11, 2001. I could spend a lot of time telling you how moving this display is, but you should really see it for yourself. Better Angels will be at Firehouse Expo next week. Try to get there.
The video I shot (above) at the Maryland State Firemen's Association Convention as part of my work for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF with the DOJ's Public Safety Officers' Benefits Programs support the display) does not really do it justice.
After Baltimore, Better Angels will be displayed elsewhere around the country, including FRI in Atlanta. Click here for more information.
Must see video: One of our sharp readers must have been reading my mind. Even before I posted this column they sent me the video above. It is from Daybreak, Utah where a home fireworks show set the shooter's home on fire and injured a man and boy watching the display. Listen to the conversations of the neighbors. Read more about the incident. While some of the fireworks the Utah man was using have been described as illegal, the state has a new law that allows citizens the freedom to use aerial rockets that shoot up to 150 feet in the air (and, of course, the state refused to adopt residential sprinklers). Click here & here for other videos from this celebration of freedom in Daybreak.
At the same time another story from Maine caught my attention. Governor Paul LePage signed a bill into law Friday that eases a lot of the state's restrictions on consumer fireworks. It wasn't in time for this year's July 4th celebrations, but it will be for the next one. (My home state of Virginia almost did the same thing last year.)
I have a much different view about all of this. They are just more examples of big money from home builders and the fireworks lobbies winning the day over common sense about safety. Somehow I must have slept through the part of history class where one of the truths our founding fathers saw as self-evident is that the voice of the person with the deepest pockets is the one that counts.
Sorry, but I don't see being able to set my neighbor's house on fire with a flying missile and maim a few children along the way as an important freedom. Or is it freedom to stifle the voice of that state's expert in the field. And I don't see freedom as allowing the construction of houses with no fire barrier or effective suppression system, built so close together that a fire in my neighbor's house will more than likely take out mine and maybe a few others.
Prince William County (VA) Fire Chief Kevin McGee pointed out to me earlier this century that our founding fathers learned the hard way about the benefits of home separation, fire prevention and materials that can resist fire. Now, 235 years later we forget those important history lessons at the very same time we have been gutting firefighting forces across this great land.
And there is no doubt, despite what some will see as my negativity on this issue (and a few other issues about freedom), it IS a great land that we are celebrating today. Please remember all of those who are and have fought for our freedoms. They deserve our support, respect and admiration.
May I humbly suggest that we just keep in mind what those freedoms are really about and that they are not suddenly unimportant because of the passion of the moment or because the highest bidder wants to move us in a different direction.
On previous July 4ths I have told you about my 1993 trip to New York to see FDNY in action. Two videos from that trip with fire buff extraordinaire Vito Maggiolo are on this page.
One of the videos (above) is of a most unusual experience, the crash of a blimp. Here's what I wrote about that in 2007 (don't you love it when an ego driven blogger quotes himself?):
Independence Day in 1993 was one of the stranger days of my life. I had gone with my friend Vito Maggiolo to New York to experience July 4th, usually the busiest day of the year for FDNY.
In the afternoon we were visiting one of Vito’s friends at Manhattan Fire Alarm in Central Park.
As we were sitting around chatting, the phones suddenly began ringing. We were hearing bits and pieces of only one side of the conversation. But the call takers were asking questions with surprised looks on their faces. We heard: “A what?”; “Where”?; “It’s deflating?”; “Over the Hudson?”.
Vito and I raced south and then to the west toward the Hudson River. We arrived just after the first firefighters and saw Pizza Hut’s Bigfoot Pizza Blimp draped over the side of an apartment building. We watched as the two injured crew members were brought down from the roof.
The other video (above) is more relevant to today's column. It gives you a glimpse of Brooklyn at a time when citizens with massive amounts of fireworks helped make Independence Day the busiest day of the year for FDNY.
Here is what I wrote four years ago about my 1993 experience:
It seemed as if fireworks were going off on every street. Barrels of fireworks burned in the middle of many blocks. Bottle rockets struck our car. M-80s exploded in trash can after trash can. The radio blared with reports of neighbor’s homes set on fire by fireworks along with numerous reports of injured people.
On one hand it felt as if I had been transported to a war zone. I’ll admit, being new to this, it was a little scary. At the same time, it reminded me of something very beautiful — one of my favorite movies, Barry Levinson’s “Avalon”.
The scene of Russian immigrant Sam Krichinsky arriving in Baltimore on July 4th is repeated throughout the film. As he walks under exploding fireworks all around him, this is the voice-over dialogue:
I came to America in 1914–by way of Philadelphia. That’s where I got off the boat. And then I came to Baltimore. It was the most beautiful place you ever seen in your life. There were lights everywhere! What lights they had! It was a celebration of lights! I thought they were for me, Sam, who was in America. Sam was in America! I know what holiday it was, but there were lights. And I walked under them. The sky exploded, people cheered, there were fireworks! What welcome it was, what a welcome!
NEW YORK (AP) — A construction company supervisor was acquitted of manslaughter and all other charges Tuesday in a blaze that killed two firefighters at a condemned bank tower at ground zero.
Jurors delivered their verdict for Salvatore DePaola, but the panel was still deliberating for Jeffrey Melofchik. The judge hasn't yet rendered a verdict for a third defendant and the company.
"I haven't slept in four years," DePaola said after the verdict.
"There are people who didn't do their jobs and they should have been up here," he said, pointing a finger at the fire department.
A worker's careless smoking sparked an August 2007 blaze that tore through nine floors of the former bank building, which was being taken down after being damaged and contaminated with toxic debris in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Firefighters Robert Beddia, 53, and Joseph P. Graffagnino, 33, died after being trapped in black, choking smoke and running out of air in their oxygen tanks.
Prosecutors said the break in the firefighting pipe, called a standpipe, was the crucial factor in their deaths. With the standpipe useless, it took firefighters about an hour to get water on the flames, letting the blaze build into a lethal inferno, prosecutors said.
They said Alvo, DePaola and Melofchik knew the pipe had broken about eight months before, when workers took down some braces that were holding it to the basement ceiling. The supports were proving stubbornly hard to scrub of asbestos, and the bosses were under pressure to speed the cleanup to keep it from going over budget, prosecutors said.
So after the break, the men had a 42-foot section of standpipe cut up and carted away and did nothing to repair or flag it, though Melofchik continued to sign daily reports saying the building's fire-suppression system was working, prosecutors said.
"They did the thing that killed those firefighters," Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann told jurors in a closing argument. "The evidence … woven together, paints a mosaic of overwhelming guilt — that but for these wholly reckless acts, these firefighters would be alive today."
But defense lawyers said the men didn't recognize the pipe's importance, and the disaster was a product of a web of shortsighted regulating and hazards beyond their control.
"This was a horrible, perfect storm of bad circumstance," defense lawyer Edward J.M. Little said in a closing argument. The two firefighters, he said, "died horrible deaths, but it wasn't because of anything the defendants did."
After the blaze, it emerged that the fire department hadn't inspected the building for more than a year, though it was required to do so every 15 days.
Meanwhile, building, environmental and labor inspectors hadn't realized that some measures meant to contain toxins could thwart firefighting. Plywood stairwell barriers slowed firefighters' progress, and a fan system kept smoke in and pulled it down, instead of letting it rise and escape.
The city and Melofchik's employer, general contractor Bovis Lend Lease, acknowledged errors. In response, the Fire Department created dozens of inspection and auditing jobs, and Bovis agreed to finance a $10 million memorial fund for slain firefighters' families, among other responses.
Meanwhile, the building lingered for almost a decade as a grim reminder of the attacks. The last of it was finally removed in February..
At the very beginning of the video above, taken by a bystander, there appears to be fire showing out of only one set of windows of a five story apartment building with stores on the ground floor. It isn't very long before the building is well involved. The apartment building at Washington Avenue and St. John's Place was vacant and scheduled for renovation.
One firefighter was injured by bricks that fell during a collapse late in the operation. Video from that mishap is in the WABC-TV video below. More video and details in this story by WCBS-TV and from Bill Schumm at Firegeezer.
A massive fire consumed every inch of the building at 816 Washington Avenue. The building was vacant and under construction, closed except for a store on the first floor.
The blaze grew to four alarms and traveled from building to building down Washington Avenue.
Three buildings down, at St. John’s Place, a section of the fire ravaged wall buckles and crumbled with such force that bricks were sent flying.
Even though firefighters were standing back a full 100 feet, they weren’t back far enough – one brick struck one of New York’s Bravest, breaking the firefighter’s cheekbone.
A man is reported to be in serious condition after being rescued from his Coney Island home yesterday morning by the crew from FDNY's Ladder 161. It is one of 20 fire companies on the chopping block. Union officials say the ladder crew arrived on the scene within six-minutes of the fire at 3194 Bayview Avenue. Eight of the fire companies on the closing list are in Brooklyn. None of the articles had an official response from the city.
The 23-year-old man was trapped in a back room of the Bayview Ave. building in Coney Island when firefighters from Ladder 161 arrived about 6:30 a.m., officials said.
Lt. Edward Gonzalez and Firefighter Sean Connolly crawled through the flames to get to the 6-foot-2, 260-pound man.
"We climbed on our hands and knees past the fire," Gonzalez said.
"We got the window out and we were able to get the victim out safely,” said firefighter Sean Connolly.
“He was very lucky, this person was very lucky, I don't know what's going to happen in the future, I just know today this person made it," said Lt. Edward Gonzalez of Ladder 161.
"This person would clearly not be alive if Mayor Bloomberg had his way," said President Steve Cassidy of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, "What happened early this morning should show the administration that these companies are vital in every neighborhood and should not be closed."
Cassidy also said that the backup company, Ladder 169 arrived 6 and a half minutes after 161 and that if the were the primary responders, today's blaze could of had a far more bad outcome
New York, New York
FDNY early video & audio: Brooklyn 2nd alarm apartment fire. Citizen: ‘You’ve been here 10 minutes. Where’s the water?’
21 commentsA fire on New Year's Day at 2223 Cortelyou Road in Brooklyn left nine people injured. Make sure you hear the comment from the woman at 2:58 in the video and the response. Read more.