Results tagged “firecommissionernicholasscoppetta”

Last October, a fire was started outside the Engine 34/Ladder 21 firehouse on West 38th Street. The fire was put out, but upon investigation, it turned out the ones who set it were firefighters from different firehouses! A surveillance cameras actually captured Michael Izzo and Richard Capece purchasing the gasoline at a gas station and later splashing the stationhouse's garage door and igniting it, setting off what was described as a fireball.

A "rising star" in the Fire Department was found with three gunshot to the head in his Staten Island home Sunday morning. The ME's office said that Douglas J. Mercereau's death was a homicide. It's believed that his 38-year-old wife, Janet Redmond-Mercereau, is a suspect (the Daily News calls her the "prime suspect"). She called 911 around 8:25AM on Sunday, saying she found her husband's body. The Staten Island Advance says the couple had "started...

An illegal restaurant may have been the cause of a gas leak that caused a Manhattan apartment building to explode, injuring 20 people late yesterday afternoon. Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said a gas leak caused a flash fire that blew out the walls of several apartments in the 20-unit building. Five people suffered serious burns and one firefighter was injured by falling debris while on the scene. Another firefighter was also hurt. Four of the burn victims were children. Investigators are uncertain of the source of the leak, but neighbors said one of the apartments housed an unlicensed takeout restaurant that served taxi drivers in the neighborhood.

Anger and frustration about the Deutsche Bank fire that claimed two firefighters' lives simply continues to mount as the Uniformed Firefighters Association says helicopters could have prevented the tragedy. Union president Stephen Cassidy said, "I think it’s very possible that the outcome would have been entirely different."

Two weeks ago today, a 7-alarm fire at 130 Liberty Street, at the under-demolition Deutsche Bank building, claimed the lives of two firefighters, Robert Beddia, a 24-year FDNY veteran, and Joseph Graffagnino, an 8-year vet. In the wake of the tragedy, investigations revealed that though smoking by construction workers probably caused the fire, there were a series of failures on the part of the contractor and FDNY, as well as state and city agencies. Graffagnino's widow Linda angrily lashed out at the city in comments to the Post and Daily News:

With the city, it's really all about money; it's not about human life. Now who is paying the price? Me, my in-laws and my children. The firefighters, they're the good guys, and it's the city's responsibility to protect them...

Continue reading "Firefighter's Widow Speaks Out Against City"

It's been just about two weeks since the 7-alarm fire at the Deutsche Bank building, and the city and state are still trying to figure out how to proceed with the WTC-dust contaminated building's dismantling. The Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation asking for the building to be sealed up "to protect public health and the environment." It was only when the EPA had given its approval for a deconstruction plan last September that the officials were able to develop a timeline for the building's dismantling. The LMDC, which has been presenting a "new, less restrictive plan" for demolition, only said that the plan will "assess and address all potential risks to those who live and work near the building, first responders and others."

The FDNY did not inspect the Deutsche Bank building every 15 days, "as required by city rules for buildings being demolished" (NY Times). This revelation, coupled with the fact that the FDNY did not have a plan to go into the burning building, prompts the Post to demand that Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta leave his post.

Two veteran firefighters were killed in a blaze at the abandoned Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty St. yesterday. The building was in the process of being dismantled after it was damaged beyond repair during the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001. The New York Times reports that the fire started on the 17th floor, allowing the blaze to mushroom out of control as it consumed construction equipment and scaffolding, which fell to the street below. The cause of the fire is still being investigated, but a deconstruction crew was working at the site before the fire broke out and a police source told The Daily News that fire may have been caused by a construction worker's cigarette.

A 23-year-old firefighter died from injuries sustained while responding to a fire at 146 Leonard Street in East Williamsburg. Daniel Pujdak, a 2-year veteran with Ladder 146, fell four floors from a bucket ladder and suffered serious head injuries; he was pronounced dead at Bellevue shortly after. Over 60 firefighters were needed to control the fire, which allegedly started because of a cigarette left on a window sill.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the Fire Department, saying that FDNY exams in 1999 and 2002 discriminated against black and Hispanic candidates. Black and HIspanic candidates fail the exam at much higher rates, and currently, the blacks and Hispanics make up only 7.5% of the FDNY's 11,000 firefighters. The NY Times notes that the fire departments of LA and Philadelphia are more than 40% black or Hispanic.

Two years ago, in their infinite wisdom, Congress moved the start of Daylight Saving Time up three weeks to the second Sunday in March. That's tonight! Don't forget to adjust your clocks forward one hour before you go to bed. The reason for the date switch was to save energy.

Today, Mayor Bloomberg met with the Bronx fire victims' families and later held a press conference about the tragedy, which is the deadliest fire (aside from September 11) since 1990 . The Mayor has been under fire for leaving the city yesterday - after a Thursday press conference about the fire - for a scheduled appearance in Miami, where he made jokes about "Mayors Gone Wild" in South Beach.

The Fire Department has been working with the US Naval Research Laboratory to develop transmitting chips for firefighter's gear that will allow electronic tracking of firefighters on the scene of a blaze. The chip would have to withstand the heat, smoke and water found while fighting a fire. It would be activated when a firefighter boards a truck to respond to a call.

The city is mourning the deaths of two firefighters who helped fight a Bronx building fire on Sunday. Following Sunday's death of probie firefighter Michael Reilly, 20-year FDNY veteran Lieutenant Howard Carpluk Jr. died yesterday after being hospitalized for his injuries. Investigators are now examining the three-alarm fire, which the NY Times describes as a routine call that turned into disaster. At first, it was thought that a heavy rooftop air-conditioning unit fell through the roof and through the first floor, creating a hole that took five firefighters into the basement, but now it's believed that the ground floor might not have been properly supported. The building had suffered a fire in 2000, and the repairs made to it after that are being examined. An official said, "The big question is the structural integrity of the floor. Buildings like this can hold a lot of weight. For all intents and purposes, the floor should not have collapsed unless it was severely compromised - not in a little store in 15 or 20 minutes. We have to find out if it was missing some structural support that made it vulnerable."

A five-alarm fire at the abandoned Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse/Market is being fought this morning in dramatic fashion: News choppers show that the FDNY's marine units are at work - the warehouse occupie a 200' by 600' lot along the East River. (WNBC's Vivian Lee, on location, said the fire was making it feel like a 100 degree day even 50 yards away.) Last year, Tien visited the terminal market last year and found a description of it from the Greenpoint-Williamsburg Environmental Impact Study:

The Greenpoint Terminal Market site occupies over three blocks of land along the East River between Greenpoint Avenue and Oak Street. This site, which is largely vacant, includes six industrial buildings ranging in height from one to seven stories, several of which are severely deteriorated. Immediately south of the Greenpoint Terminal Market is a now vacant piece of land formerly occupied by Consolidated Freight, a national freight forwarding company that declared bankruptcy in August 2002.

Scoppetta remind us of someone!

Yesterday's building collapse at Broadway and 100th Street is believed to have been caused by the demolition company, which put a backhoe on the structure it was tearing down, causing stress and the building to buckle. The collapse occured at 9:23AM, and many residents and shop owners in the neighborhood rushed to help firefighters and police officers with rescue efforts. Five people (waiting for a bus, walking down the street) and five firefighters were injured, but no one was seriously hurt or killed. Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said the damage could have been a lot worse, and of course, some New Yorkers were utterly freaked out. Here's an alarmist quote from Raquel Gayle, who told the NY Times, "Boom, I saw rocks falling. I was petrified; I thought it was like London, with the terrorist attacks." Oh, dear.

Mayor Bloomberg announced that any city officials who don't agree with his policies can consider working elsewhere. Many believe he said as much to counter Fire Chief Peter Hayden's public testimony that the Mayor Bloomberg-endorsed plan for the NYPD to lead emergency response situations is deeply flawed. The Mayor's words, from the NY Times:

"My job is not to be angry; my job is to make sure that everybody works together. There are always going to be differences of opinion. But everybody, in the end, if they want to work for the city, is going to get together and work together and follow the decisions that the mayor was elected to make. I expect that to be the case here."

Continue reading "Mayor My Way"

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/nyc-camp0318,0,3789709.story?coll=nyc-moreny-headlines">endorsed Bloomberg again.

Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta met with reporters yesterdayalso said, "We're simply not going to let the activities of a few members ... soil the very hard-won reputation of this department," which, in Gothamist's mind, seemed to refer to earlier controversies with firefighters (drunk driving incidents, brawls, accidents due to drug use). The FDNY's investigation is being compared to the Knapp Commission, which was the investigation into police corruption

2 p.m. —