A former Long Island resident who has been posing as a 9/11 firefighter for the past year has finally admitted he was never near the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. A man accused of posing as a 9/11 hero has owned up to living a lie. Jordan Lifander told CBS 2's Lou Young, “It just snowballed into something that was out of my control. I’m truly sorry for misleading and lying about the fact I was on FDNY." more ›

The firefighter who was severely burned fighting a fire in Crown Heights yesterday morning nearly lost his life while searching for people in a brownstone that was unoccupied. The firefighter, Robert Wiedmann, 38, was with others searching for victims on the top floor when flames suddenly exploded into the front room. Video obtained by a bystander shows him on fire and leaping onto an aerial ladder just as it reaches him. “The firefighter was about to jump," witness Victor Vargas tells the Post. "He was screaming like crazy." more ›

Well then, you've got almost one month to prepare for this magical event, which will put you in close range with the nation's hottest firefighters... and the city's finest sex toy collection. The "mix & mingle" event is for the Nation's Bravest 2012 calendar, so you can pick one of those up while you're there too, and will take place at Babeland SoHo on December 14th, from 7 to 9 p.m. more ›

A Brooklyn firefighter is facing 20 years in prison for allegedly serving as muscle for a mob coke ring. Anthony Cilento, of Ladder 166, claims he left the ring when he entered the Fire Department Academy in 2008. But prosecutors paint a different picture: "The defendant's relationship with the Bonanno family is corroborated by consensual recordings made...over a full year into his service to the New York City Fire Department," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Argerentieri. more ›

Remember Claudia Charriez? She made it to the semifinal round on America's Next Top Model in 2006, but was disqualified after she revealed that she had been born a man. She's back in the news now—because she says her firefighter/FDNY calendar model boyfriend assaulted her, because he thought she was flirting with other men at Flashdancers. "He pinned me into a telephone booth and strangled me, then let go and started crying," she told the Post. more ›

Last year, a judge agreed with a family who was fighting for retired FDNY Captain James Corrigan to be listed on the 9/11 Memorial. Corrigan was helping others when he was killed at the World Trade Center during the September 11, 2001 attacks, but the city argued he was working as a private sector safety coordinator at the time. Now, the city has decided his name will indeed be placed on the memorial. more ›

Five days after a five-alarm fire ravaged a Flatbush apartment building, killing one and injuring dozens, firefighters found a family's three-year-old cat. Fatty Girl was coaxed out of the charred apartment by firefighters, who followed her from the dining room, to a closet and finally a bedroom. Lt. Steve Molino said, "This thing was really trying not to be found. [She] was quick for a heavy cat." more ›

The fight between Mayor Bloomberg and the police and firefighter unions is getting nasty. Last week, it was revealed that Bloomberg was interested in eliminating a $12,000 bonus to current and future NYPD and FDNY retirees, leading heads of those unions to call him a liar. Steve Cassidy, head of the Uniformed Firefighters Associations, said, "As we approach the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Mike Bloomberg wants to say to firefighters and police officers who were there that day and didn't die, 'I'm going to steal money from your pocket.'" more ›

A five-alarm fire broke out in an apartment building in Elmhurt last night. According to the Daily News, fire "raged for three hours" and displaced 100 families. A resident says the fire was started by a space heater—and the FDNY says the aftereffects of the blizzard delayed their response. more ›

Firefighter Pat Guagliariello has pleaded not guilty to charges against him following a fatal hit-and-run, and now more details are emerging about the night. Initially, Quagliariello admitted to the 62nd Precinct that his car was involved in the crash but wouldn't say whether or not he was driving. Now, he has been charged with (among other things) criminally negligent homicide after admitting to texting and speeding on the night of the crash. And it looks like it may have been his brother who made him go to the Precinct in the first place. more ›

Firefighter Pat Quagliariello has been arrested after an NYPD probe showed that he was speeding and talking on a cell phone during an October hit-and-run that killed Guatemalan immigrant Manuel Tzajguachiac. Initially, Quagliariello admitted to the 62nd Precinct that his vehicle had been involved in the crash, but wouldn't say if he had been at the wheel. more ›

City Councilman Peter Vallone is introducing a bill that would raise the cut-off age for aspiring firefighters to take the FDNY entrance exam. Currently, potential recruits must be under 29 years of age on the day of the test, but Vallone's bill would change that age requirement to 35. The age change is intended to remedy the consequences of a 2007 court decision which found that the FDNY's recruitment exams discriminated against non-whites. None of the applicants from that year were allowed to join the FDNY, and since there hasn't been a new test since then, many of them will be too old to take a new, court-approved FDNY test. more ›

Though he was first reassigned to administrative duty for the duration of a hit-and-run probe, firefighter Pat Quagliariello has now been suspended without pay for 30 days. Early Sunday morning, Manuel Tzajguachiac was struck and killed by a BMW in Bensonhurst, and four hours later Quagliariello arrived at the 62nd precinct, saying it was his car involved in the accident. He would not say whether he was behind the wheel, and police are now conducting forensic tests to see if he was driving. more ›

Firefighter Pat Quagliariello, who owns the BMW SUV that may have been involved in Sunday morning's fatal hit-and-run, has been placed on administrative duty while investigators determine whether or not he was behind the wheel. Manuel Tzajguachiac, 25, was struck and killed early Sunday morning on the corner of 65th Street and 20th Avenue in Bensonhurst, and four hours later Quagliariello showed up at the 62nd Precinct. He admitted to owning the car but would not say whether he was driving, and reportedly asked for a lawyer (or said he was already represented). more ›

Though he found the FDNY's hiring practices racist, saying they discriminated against black and Hispanic firefighter candidates, federal judge Nicholas Garaufis offered the city a compromise to allow the FDNY to hire 300 more recruits from the Fire Academy. Here are his suggested approaches, via the Post: "Randomly selecting enrollees from the top 2,500 scorers on the last test. To increase the pool of black and Hispanic candidates, the city would eliminate the lowest-scoring whites in the group and add the highest-scoring minorities who did not make the top 2,500..." more ›

Yesterday word got out that New York's firefighters were unable to rescue a stray cat from a tree in Fort Greene, but now they may have redeemed themselves. According to the NY Post, the FDNY raised the bar yesterday by bringing a cat back to life. They report that the "apparently dead Brooklyn cat" was pulled from 925 Dumont Avenue during a four-alarm fire, but firefighter Pat Foresta felt some life in it (they do have 9 lives, after all) and rushed it to vet to get it some oxygen. Maybe the FDNY needs to invest in those pet oxygen masks! more ›

Opening arguments were heard yesterday in the Brooklyn federal court trial of Patrick Murray, the firefighter who was caught last year operating a marijuana grow house in Queens Village. Murray is charged with tending more than 100 pot plants, worth upwards of $5,000 each. But the firefighter might have damned himself with the location of the operation. more ›

A 14-month-old boy was pulled from his family's Staten Island pool in cardiac arrest yesterday afternoon. WABC 7 reports that little Vincent Fougere " found by his parents floating in the pool wearing only his diaper." Luckily, the local firehouse was nearby and a neighbor, who heard the screaming parents, ran over there for help. more ›

Earlier this morning, firefighters retrieved a man who fell down a building shaft at 141 S 5th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The FDNY tells us they got the call at 2:43 a.m. and when they arrived, a man (age unknown, possibly in 30s or 40s), fell 60 feet down a 3' x 3' shaft from the roof. Rescue 2, Battalion 34 and Ladder 104 responded and conducted a high angle rescue. The man was taken in "serious condition" to Bellevue Hospital. more ›

An off-duty NYPD officer allegedly got into a bar fight in Bay Ridge early Saturday morning, causing injuries to a Port Authority officer and a firefighter. The fight started around 3 a.m. at The Kettle Black when the NYPD officer got into an argument with a group of five men, who then jumped him and smashed a bottle over his head. "I saw one man grab a bottle and started yelling, 'Come on, come on, a—hole and stabbed the other guy with the bottle,'" one man told the Daily News. "It looked like a war broke out right on the streets of Bay Ridge." more ›

Fire Department heart doctor Neil Coplan has been approved for $95,000-a-year pension for his heart illness, though he never actually fought a fire. According to the Post, any officer or firefighter who acquires a heart illness is assumed to have gotten it from fighting fires, and is automatically eligible for the plan if the disease forces retirement. Dr. Coplan has visited a fire scene only a few times in his career. more ›

The guy who took the worst beating from firefighters during that epic bar brawl at the Salty Dog in Bay Ridge at the end of Janurary has spoken to the press for the first time, and his account of the assault is harrowing. The brawl left St. Francis College coach Sinan Selmani, 35, with a broken eye orbit bone, a broken collarbone and broken shoulder, but it could have been worse. He says that at one point during the melee nine drunken firefighters punched, shoved and kicked him in an attempt to force him into the bathroom. But he held onto the door frame for dear life, and tells the Post, "I said to myself, 'If you let go of the bathroom door, you're dead.' They were saying, 'We're going to kill you!' . . . 'You're going to die, motherf- - -er!' I can't even tell you how many shots I took to my head." more ›

When shots rang out near his firehouse in Hempstead, Long Island, Michael Charles did what any red-blooded fire chief would have done: grab a gun, form a posse, and saddle up (in an SUV). But for his efforts, Charles and FDNY firefighter Brian Schuck, who joined in the armed manhunt, have been charged with second-degree menacing and fourth-degree possession of a dangerous weapon charges. (A third member of the posse is expected to be arrested soon, Newsday reports.) In their search for the gunman, the three men allegedly stopped and frisked an innocent man, 29-year-old Kenneth Powell, who happens to be the son of Hempstead Village Trustee Perry Pettus. more ›

As though in answer to Bloomberg's proposed cuts to the force, firemen saved three more New Yorkers from fiery deaths. Early this morning a mattress ignited, filling a Bed-Stuy home with smoke and flames and trapping its residents inside. Amid high winds and snow, the FDNY made quick work of the fire, plucking a young girl from the second floor, just before she jumped. "This young girl was hanging out the window screaming, 'Help me! Help me!,'" recalled Joe Fischer, one of the firemen. "She looked like she was going to jump so we had to get to her quickly." more ›

Today the trial began for a young volunteer firefighter suspected of setting fire to a building, causing four deaths. The 20-year-old from Long Island—who experts say started the fire so that he could be a "hero"—faces charges of arson and second-degree murder. But in court today, the defendant's lawyer argued that police investigated the wrong man. more ›

A Brooklyn judge decided that the onetime fiancee of a firefighter killed by the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center will continue to receive half of his pension—$35,000 annually—but said she owes the fireman's parents a "heartfelt apology." The court battle between the family of Kevin Prior and former girlfriend Doreen Noone has been raging since 2003. It was complicated by Noone's mid-case marriage to her slain beau's best friend, NYPD Sgt. Edward Wheeler in 2004. more ›