NYC Fire Wire
The city's mental health crisis is taking a physical toll on first responders, who are being attacked on the job more frequently by increasingly volatile patients. Through October of this year, 146 EMTs, paramedics & firefighters were assaulted at work — a 36% higher rate than in 2018, when assaults totaled 129 for the entire year; and 27%...
An FDNY Ambulance driving by Wavecrest Gardens in Far Rockaway, Battalion 47 area, was hit by BB gun fire that cracked the windshield.
The NYPD believe the perps weren't aiming at the ambulance intentionally. No members were injured & no arrests were made.
This incident happens a week after a brick was thrown at a NYPD marked van in the Bronx.
FDNY Bureau of Fire Investigations announced Thursday that the fatal East Elmhurst fire that claimed the lives of 3 people, including a 6-year-old girl & her great-grandfather, & left 2 other members of their family clinging to life, was a work of an arson after "ignitable liquid was used as an accelerant."
Firefighters were called just after 4pm Wednesday to a fire burning in a two-story home on 93rd Street in East Elmhurst, said FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro. Responders were at the scene just minutes later & found two people had escaped the flames. They were rushed to the hospital in extremely critical condition, Nigro said.
3 people were still inside the house as the fire raged. Firefighters battled to put out the inferno & located the 3 inside.
A 6-year-old girl was pronounced dead at the scene, said Nigro. She was visiting from the Dominican Republic with her mother & baby brother, a source familiar with the investigation said.
2 adults later died at the hospital, 1 of whom was the girl's 70-year-old grandfather who lived at the house.
A good samaritan rushed to save the life of a 19-year-old man who attempted to jump from the Outerbridge Crossing on Tuesday, as shocked New Jersey-bound motorists looked on.
A former Staten Islander from Richmond who now lives in Hazlet, N.J., Gary Smiley noticed the young man -- identified as a Tottenville resident -- get out of his car and start to climb over the railing.
“I yelled out to this kid, ‘what the hell are you doing?’ and told him to get over here,” Smiley said.
As the young man put one leg over the bridge’s railing, Smiley said he went into action. A retried FDNY rescue paramedic, he clutched onto the agitated man and stayed with him until Port Authority police arrived.
“He was very distraught and he thought that he had failed at life and we talked before anyone got there,” Smiley said.
Monday July 1st, the #FDNY 9th Battalion companies; Engine 54, Ladder 4, Engine 23, Engine 40 & Ladder 35 along with Chief of Department Sudnik & Manhattan Boro Commander Chief Ajello welcomed Medal of Honor recipient US Army Staff Sergeant David Bellavia for lunch.
The actions for which Bellavia earned a Silver Star took place on his 29th birthday. As a member of Company A, Task Force 2-2, 1st Infantry Division, his platoon was assigned during Operation Phantom Fury to clear a block of twelve buildings from which insurgents were firing on American forces. The platoon began searching house-to-house. At the tenth house, Bellavia fatally shot an insurgent preparing to load a rocket-propelled grenade. A second insurgent fired at him, and Bellavia wounded him in the shoulder. When Staff Sergeant Bellavia entered a bedroom, the wounded insurgent followed, forcing Bellavia to kill him. When another insurgent began firing from upstairs, Bellavia returned fire and killed him. A fourth insurgent then jumped out of a closet in the bedroom, yelling and firing his weapon as he leaped over a bed trying to reach Bellavia. The insurgent tripped and Bellavia wounded him. Bellavia chased the insurgent when he ran upstairs. He followed the wounded insurgent's bloody footprints to a room on the left and threw in a fragmentation grenade. Upon entering the room, Bellavia discovered it was filled with propane tanks and plastic explosives. He did not fire his weapon for fear of setting off an explosion and instead then engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the insurgent, which led to Bellavia killing the insurgent by stabbing him in the collarbone.
The #NYPD, #FDNY & #USCG participated in The Blessing of the FDNY Marine Fleet on Monday July 1st. This maritime tradition is meant to ensure safe travels & bountiful season of the FDNY Marine fleet, which encompasses 28 vessels stationed throughout the five boroughs. Full Time Marine companies are 1, 6, 9 & Marine Battalion. Marine 3, 4 & 8 are Summer Boat program from May through October covering the Summer & Hurricane season.
CHINATOWN, Manhattan (WABC) -- A man died after a falling safe crushed him in Manhattan.
Police say they found the man on the third floor landing of a building in Chinatown Sunday afternoon, pinned underneath a safe.
Police believe the man was trying to move the safe up several flights of stairs, when it fell on him.
The FDNY says another person went to the hospital.
Police believe it was an accident.
A decorated FDNY firefighter was among four Americans killed by a roadside bomb near the main U.S. base in Afghanistan on Monday, sources told The Post.
Christopher Slutman, a married father of three, worked at Ladder 27 in the Claremont section of the Bronx, the sources said.
Slutman, who was a 15-year veteran of the FDNY, also served as a U.S. Marine, according to sources.
One source remembered him as a devoted father and hard-working FDNY member.
“He was really a great guy,” the source said. “He loved being a fireman, and he was a real family man.”
March 22nd, 1987- a fire in a Harlem residential high rise shaped the way the FDNY operates at high rise buildings today. Lessons learned from this fire can apply to both firefighters & the public.
Schomburg Plaza, a 35 story residential high rise building located at 1295 5th Avenue in Harlem section of Manhattan was built in 1975. The plaza is located on the northeast corner of Central Park. The 2 35 story towers 100x100 & 11 story rectangular slab are all clad in reinforced concrete & are separated by a landscaped multi-level outdoor plaza.
On March 22nd, 1987 at around 7am, trash was ignited in the compactor chute of one of the towers. Investigation revealed, the 1st odor of smoke from the chut was at 7am, however, the 1st call to 9-1-1 came in a 7:57am, an hour later. Upon arrival of 1st due companies, they were informed by maintenance personel that there was a small fire was located in the basement compactor room & that it was already being extinguished. However, the fire was later found to have started in the chute between the 27th & 29th floors. It then spread upward through the chute, an adjacent pipe chase, construction openings & ultimately through the interior walls of apartments adjacent to the chute. While fire operations were focused on the basement room, this led to the delay in rescue & extinguishment efforts on the upper floors. According to the USFA report, it took 16 minutes after arrival at the scene to discover the fire on the upper floors. This was 9 minutes after Rescue was released to return to quarters because it was throught the fire in the compactor chute was out. The dispatchers mistakenly informed all residents that the fire was being handled. Callers were not adequately questioned as to their circumstances. They did not relay the quantity of calls being received from occupants from the 15th - 33rd floors in the 10 minutes before the Chief decided (8:07am) that the fire was out & started returning companies.
At 8:06am, 2 firefighters arrived at the roof to perform vertical ventilation. At 8:10am, 2 more firefighters arrived at the roof level. At 8:11am, 1 firefighter dropped down to upper floors to inspect, when he was met with heavy fire from apt 34H. Operations were hampered due to water pressure issues. At 8:35am, a 2nd Alarm was transmitted. The fire wasn't placed Under Control until 9:45am.
Fire Code: Each code specifies a fire-resistance rating of 2 hours for shaft enclosures in all non-combustible construction. The "as built" plans for Schomburg Plaza specify 3 inch enclosure walls for the compactor shaft. Such a design, if properly constructed, would comply with both State & City codes. However, examination of the shaft disclosures that it was not built according to plan. The wall assembly was 2 5/8 inch thick, not the 3 inches called for in the "as built" plans. Also discovered on the 29th floor was a missing chute hopper door & missing door on the compactor closet leading to the hallway.
The Queens air-conditioning-company owner accused of trying to poison a family with mercury loaded so much of the toxic metal into their AC unit that levels in the air soared to more than 60 times the regulated standards, an FDNY lieutenant testified Wednesday.
Lt. John Cassidy of the FDNY’s HAZMAT unit testified in Queens Criminal Court Wednesday that when he tested the air inside the Jamaica Estates home in 2015, he found mercury levels to be over 60 micrograms-per-meter-cubed in every room in the house.
The Centers for Disease Control has advised that anything over one microgram-per-meter cubed is unsafe.
After finding “multiple small beads” of mercury inside the unit’s intake vent, Cassidy advised the family to stay away from the house until the Department of Health gave them clearance to return.
Yuriy Kruk, the owner of A+ HVAC and Kitchen Corporation, installed the new AC unit inside Roman Pinkhasov’s elegant Jamaica Estates home in July 2015. Soon after, the homeowner and his family came down with a mysterious illness.
From the US Coast Guard:
NEW YORK — The U.S. Coast Guard and Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) Special Operations Command firefighters and Rescue Paramedics conducted a joint safety examination of a disabled 479-foot asphalt tanker Monday afternoon after a fire broke out in its engine room while underway in the Atlantic Ocean, Oct. 5.
Early Friday morning, watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England in Woods Hole, Mass., received a report that the Hong Kong-flagged tanker Feng Huang AO with 21 crew aboard, had a fire ignite in their engine room while transiting 57 miles southeast of Nantucket Island.
The ship is loaded with asphalt and was bound for New York Harbor.
The fire was extinguished using the ship’s installed carbon dioxide fire suppression system. There were no reported injuries to any crew members, and no reports of pollution. The ship’s electrical generators and main engine were disabled by the fire.
Coast Guard Cutter Legare, a 270-foot Medium Endurance Cutter, homeported in Portsmouth, Va., was diverted to the area to assist the stricken vessel.
One day after the FDNY mourned the loss of its fallen brothers during the 9/11 attacks, members had a reason to celebrate. One of their own, former FDNY Chief John Nasta, celebrated his 100th birthday on Wednesday, Sept. 12 at Sofia Restaurant in Bay Ridge, surrounded by family, friends and members of the FDNY.
The smiling Brooklyn-born-and-raised centenarian spent 34 years with the FDNY and retired at the rank of battalion chief of FDNY Battalion 40 at Fourth Avenue and 51st Street in Brooklyn. At the time, he was the longest serving fire officer in FDNY history.
Nasta started his career with the FDNY in 1942, but after six months he was called to serve in the Navy during World War II. Because he had some training in the Fire Department, he was put in charge of training thousands of Navy recruits in fire safety while stationed in San Diego, before being sent to serve in Hawaii.
When the war ended he returned home to Brooklyn and began his 34-year career in the FDNY.
Nasta’s beloved wife Alice died in 2005. But with the support of his sister Gloria, nieces, nephews and close friends, he still maintains an active lifestyle.
They’re going up the FDNY ladder together.
Two bravest brothers from the Rockaways will both be promoted on Friday, less than a week after they marked the passing of a third sibling — a twin to one of them — who died on 9/11.
FDNY Lt. Sean Heeran will be bumped up to captain and younger brother Firefighter William (Billy) Heeran will be promoted to lieutenant during a special ceremony at the Christian Cultural Center in East New York, Brooklyn, on Friday.
“We took the test six months apart,” Billy Heeran, 40, said Thursday. “We never thought we would get promoted together. Not in a million years.”
In attendance will be their wives, children and proud pop Bernie Heeran, a retired FDNY firefighter.
