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
This is Ed Gray's work from a 5-alarm fire in Queens that was discovered very late Sunday night. It occurred at the restaurant O'Neill's on 53rd Drive and 65th Place in the Maspeth section. The restaurant opened in 1928. It was destroyed and the fire extended to a deli next door. The restaurant was open when the fire broke out. Fire officials say the blaze began in a deep fryer in the restaurant's basement kitchen. Click here for more on the fire.
In my business I teach people the importance of a clear and consistent message. We are told the Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Department on Long Island has these four simple words in front of each of its five firehouses. I think we hear this one loud and clear.
Below, a more somber look at what the news of the killing of Osama bin Laden means. CBS News' Jim Axelrod visited with the firefighters at FDNY's Engine 54 and Ladder 4 today.
The image above of FDNY's Ladder 4 is on the home page of the New York Times this morning showing the firefighters joining thousands of others in Times Square taking in the news of the death of Osama bin Laden. Click the image for more pictures from New York and elsewhere. Below are videos from Times Square showing the crowd gathered on and around Ladder 4, along with videos of celebrations from Ground Zero and The White House.
Last week, firefighters attending FDIC in Indianapolis made the climb (Previous STATter911.com coverage of the 9-11 Memorial Stair Climb at FDIC is here). Wednesday, firefighters stepped it up at Hilton Washington to honor the 343 honor firefighters who lost their lives on 9-11. The event was co-hosted by the Congressional Fire Services Institute and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.
Among these doing the climb were Prince George's County Fire/.EMS Department Chief Marc Bashoor and a class of PGFD recruits.
Click HERE to learn how to host or participate in a National Fallen Firefighters Foundation 9-11 Memorial Stair Climb.
WCBS-TV says it has a partial list of what may be as many as 20 fire companies in New York that could be closed under Mayor Michael Bloomberg's budget cutting plan. Click above to watch the story.
Also in FDNY news, Glenn Usdin's FireTruckBlog.com takes a look at the expansion of the "Modified Response" program. Queens has been following the procedure since October and now Brooklyn and Staten Island will as well.
A press release yesterday (see below) from Jack Evans, a long-time member of the City Council of the District of Columbia, has a lot of DC firefighters excited that there is an important ally in their battle to keep the DCFD logo, instead of wearing t-shirts that say FEMS. Evans has introduced a council bill that would allow firefighters to keep their DCFD shirts. In the release, Evans makes many of the same arguments firefighters have. He talks about tradition and the morale issue of forcing firefighters who haven't had a raise in years to fork over their own money to be in compliance. (The release also refers to "New York City’s iconic 'NYFD' logo" which makes you think maybe it's not as iconic as we believe.)
While my original article on this focused on the potential marketing pitfalls of using the DC government shorthand of FEMS, I understand the emotional aspects of such a move and the tradition involved. I also understand pretty clearly the image problem that EMS has faced in the Nation's Capital.
But here is something else I understand that no one seems to be talking about. Something that is written rather clearly in the press release by Evans' staff. While there is a lot of political capital being spent on both sides of the logos and t-shirts issue, the cops now have legislation pending to provide a minimum level of staffing for the department.
In the very same press release outlining the FEMS battle, Evans reports on the introduction of his bill titled “MPD Minimum Staffing Act of 2011”. It is co-sponsored by four of his colleagues. Interestingly Evans does not mention any co-sponsors on the “Fire and Emergency Medical Services Logo Clarification Act of 2011”. Tom Howell Jr. at The Washington Times tells us "Initially, the legislation was cosponsored by Council member Marion Barry, Ward 8 Democrat. However, Mr. Barry after the introduction withdrew his support."
So, at a time when unions across the country are fighting for their existence and losing gains they made in safe staffing levels, the DC police department is bucking the trend and somehow has a bill on the table that would keep a minimum of 4,000 cops on the force.
At the same time, the District of Columbia Fire EMS Department/DCFD/DC Fire/FEMS somehow got itself into a domestic squabble over t-shirts and logos. How unfortunate.
Evans Introduces Police & Fire Legislation
Bills Aimed at Public Safety & Employee Morale
Washington, DC – Councilmember Jack Evans today introduced the “MPD Minimum Staffing Act of 2011” and the “Fire and Emergency Medical Services Logo Clarification Act of 2011.”
The “MPD Minimum Staffing Act of 2011” was co-sponsored by Councilmembers Graham, Bowser, Brown, and Biddle and would require the District of Columbia to retain a minimum staffing level of 4,000 sworn members of the Metropolitan Police Department.
“Chief Lanier recently testified that fewer than 3,800 sworn officers will present significant challenges for our public safety efforts,” said Evans. “This Bill will help to ensure that we never reach a point where our rank and file membership falls below 4,000.”
The “Fire and Emergency Services Logo Clarification Act of 2011” would provide that District firefighters may continue to wear the DCFD logo on their uniforms despite a controversial order from Chief Kenneth Ellerbe requiring all personnel to wear “FEMS,” as well as to pay for certain changes to their uniforms.
“No one is arguing against the policy justifications for elevating the stature of the emergency medical services portion of the department,” Evans said. “However, just look at New York City’s iconic “NYFD” logo, used for a department that serves a number of functions, none of which are suffering because they are not all included in the department’s logo. Around the country, a logo consisting of a city’s initials in front of “FD” is universally recognized and inspires confidence and cooperation from residents.”
“Further, a workforce that hasn’t received a pay increase in five years should not be asked to incur additional out of pocket expenses to purchase re-designed uniforms without any consultation whatsoever.”
A fire Thursday at 275 Eldert Street in Brooklyn. Before the arrival of FDNY neighbors try to help those at second floor windows in the front. It appears from the video there may have been others waiting for help in the rear. None of the injuries were reported to be serious. Below is a later video from the fireground.
"We issue a sincere and deep apology to Firefighter [Robert] Keiley and this ad will not run again." The New York Post reports those are the words of John Barker, president of the Barker/DZP ad agency. It is a reversal for the agency that originally stood on the ground that a standard modeling waiver signed by Keiley allowed the agency to use his image as it saw fit. (Keep reading for my views on how a firm in the business of influencing the public could be so tone deaf in figuring out how to handle something like this.)
Here are more in excerpts from the latest New York Post article by Jamie Schram:
The Post reported today that Keiley — who joined New York's Bravest only in 2004 — was working as a model when he posed for what he thought would be used for a run-of-the-mill fire-prevention ad.
He appeared in generic firefighter gear and gripped a helmet for the shot — not the photo of the destroyed Twin Towers that was "put" into his hands with Photoshop software for the Worby Groner Edelman & Napoli Bern ad.
"It's an insult to the Fire Department. It's an insult to all the families who lost people that day," said Keiley, 34, an ex-cop who now works out of an engine company in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
Keily had threatened to sue.
I find it fascinating that even people in the image business couldn't effectively deal with this bad news right from the start. While it is possible they may have been legally and technically correct, they weren't going to win the hearts and minds of the public with the agency's initial statement about Firefighter Keiley signing the release. With the emotions that surround 9-11 I doubt that this ad was wise even if it wasn't a real firefighter as the model.
This is a reason why it is good for the deciders (thank you George W. Bush), including fire chiefs, to have people who will provide an honest view of how actions and decisions look to those on the outside. While I saw it as inevitable this ad would be pulled as soon as I read the first paragraph, people who had a stake in producing it might have been too invested in their work to see how this was playing.
Interestingly, the ad agency has figured out the ad must go, but Worby Groner Edelman & Napoli Bern are still in the defend at all cost mode. From the New York Post:
But law firm senior partner Marc Bern insisted it did nothing wrong.
"It was all appropriate, due to the release signed by [Keiley]," he said. "We are trying to help the victims of 9/11."
Below is the complete statement released yesterday from the ad agency, Barker/DZP.
Our agency sincerely apologies for any pain caused by this ad, featured in today’s New York Post.
When creating the ad, we purchased stock photography of an actor dressed as a firefighter, and we obtained all required model releases and real property owner releases, specifically including use for any purpose (such as advertising) as well all rights regarding the manipulation and/or alteration of the image. This is standard procedure for advertising agencies. At no time did we have any idea—or could we have had any knowledge–that the person in the photo, Robert Keiley, was an actual firefighter, much less a New York City firefighter. This unfortunate coincidence makes the ad into something we never intended it to be.
The intent of the ad is very positive: making the heroes of 9/11 aware that funds are now available to help them through the Zadroga Act. It was never our intention to offend anyone with this effort, quite the opposite in fact.
We hold all firefighters in the highest regard, and believe all New York City firefighters are heroes. While our mistake was entirely inadvertent, we understand why the ad has caused hurt, we regret its use, and we accept responsibility. Our client was uninvolved in the selection of this photo and had no knowledge of any of these details. Out of respect for all parties involved, Barker/DZP has voluntarily withdrawn from this assignment.
We sincerely apologize to Firefighter Keiley, as well as the New York City Fire Department, and the brave firefighters who fearlessly served their city and gave their lives on 9/11.
John Barker
President
Barker/DZP
New York, NY
March 28, 2011
As part of my work with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, I have been pushing the climbs as a way to honor the firefighters we lost 10-years-ago. To be honest, while I had heard a lot from firefighters who have hosted and organized climbs, I had never seen one until Friday at FDIC. The video doesn't quite do justice to this wonderful way to join together to remember the fallen and raise money to help their survivors and others. There is another climb next week (April 6) at CFSI in Washington, DC.
Rather than me trying to explain what a great experience and event a 9-11 Memorial Stair Climb is, read what was posted yesterday on the Average Jake Firefighter Blog run by Robert and Daniel Owens:
Of all of the times I have been to FDIC and all of the classes, and events I have been to I rarely have any regrets when I leave. This year I left with a HUGE regret. The 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb, was probably one of the best displays of brotherhood, I have ever witnessed. I regret not participating, I watched and was moved by the imagery of the brothers and sisters with pictures of the 343 making the long walk up the Lucas Oil Stadium steps, and I immediately regretted not doing it. I kind of felt like a scum bag. I use FDIC for a lot of things, learning, teaching, and relaxing. I felt selfish for not giving up one night of drinking, or a day of taking it easy to memorialize our fallen brothers. I hear there is one coming to DC, and I hear they may be one coming to other locations close to me. I will definitely be participating in one of them, and I hope FDIC does one again next year so that I can participate.
Firefighter Robert Keiley is livid. Keiley, who moonlights as a model, was shocked last week to find his image on a flier at a fundraising event for the World Police Fire Games. The ad shows the soot-stained Keily holding a picture of the World Trade Center remains. In bold letters at the top it says "I was there". It is followed by the words "And now, Worby Groner Edelman & Napoli Bern is there for me."
Keiley told the Post he thought he was posing for a fire prevention ad. He says the original photo, before it was altered, showed him holding a helmet and not the picture.
Keiley is thinking of filing a law suit but the ad agency, Barker/DZP, told the Post he signed his rights away in a release. The law firm told reporters to call the ad agency for comment.
Here's more from the Post:
"It's an insult to the Fire Department. It's an insult to all the families who lost people that day," said Keiley, 34, an ex-cop who now works out of an engine company in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
"It makes me look like I'm cashing in on 9/11, saying I was there even though I was never there, and that I'm sick and possibly suing, trying to get a chunk of money."
WTC-disaster law firm Worby Groner raised eyebrows in May when news surfaced that its lawyers were ready to take home a third or more of a settlement negotiated on behalf of sickened Ground Zero workers.
An angry federal judge said the arrangement gave too much money to the legal team and too little to sick workers — and the firm reduced its fees.
Keiley said that in one of his most painful moments since the ad surfaced, he had to call his best friend, whose brother died in 9/11, to tell him he had nothing to do with it.
At the bottom, in tiny letters, the ad stated, "This is an actor portrayal of a potential Zadroga claimant," referring to sick 9/11 workers who could receive aid under the federal James Zadroga Act.
Thursday is the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire near New York’s Washington Square Park that killed 146 people. Yesterday CBS Sunday morning took a look at this American tragedy.
The picture above, found at timesunion.com and other news sites, is of Bob Welch from Manchester, New Hampshire performing with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation Pipes and Drums as part of the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Savannah, Georgia. It is an AP photo by Stephen Morton, as is the one below from CTV's website, showing another warm reception for a New York firefighter marching in the same parade.
After the last couple of years of budget problems, pay cuts, layoffs, and more recently, attacks on the collective bargaining rights and pensions of firefighters, aren't these welcomed images?
You can't help but be reminded of the admiration and appreciation shown to firefighters after September 11th. These pictures are a lot different than what is going on right now in some communities with firefighters treated like outcasts and thieves who have to jusify the vital work they do. So, why and how did it get this bad?
In many cases it was inevitable based on the economy and political environment. But too many other wounds have been self inflicted. Sometimes out of selfishness, with firefighters forgetting what's important and thinking it's about themselves and not this special job they do. More often, it's from simply not realizing your image in the community does matter and you should be working at it each and every day. Doing so can build reputation equity that you'll need when the times are tough.
Too often the mistake is made of reaching out to the public only as a desperation move when the bloodletting by the politicians is well underway. It is much easier to get friends who know you well to stand by your side or be willing to go to battle on your behalf. You should be working on that now to be in better shape for the next crisis.
To me, these pictures show how it can be for firefighters. I don't know about you, but if I were a firefighter I would rather be getting warm kisses from the public, even metaphorically, than the rough handling some citizens and political leaders are giving our nation's heroes.
This was the fire early Sunday morning at 510 61st Street in Brooklyn. Forty people were injured including at least eight firefighters. Four people were initially in critical condition. A man has been arrested accused of starting the fire. On the video above it sounds like there were two separate, quickly cleared maydays on the fireground. Firegeezer had initial coverage of the fire. Firefighter Spot has a FDNY press release about the arrest.
The fire department said 56-year-old Chiu Tsang was arrested on charges of arson after they reviewed video surveillance tapes of the fire. Tsang was identified at the scene and made a number of incriminating admissions, according to the FDNY.
The blaze at the four-story building at 61st Street broke out around 5 a.m. Sunday. It took more than 140 firefighters over two hours to bring the flames under control.
Most Recent Comments