Fireman Battle Three-Alarm Blaze In Mott Haven
NY1 News 7/2/09

|
A three-alarm fire ripped
through a Bronx apartment
building early this morning.
Fire officials say the fire
broke out just after 4 a.m.
on East 138th Street in Mott
Haven.
Officials say the flames
started in a kitchen on the
third floor and the fire
spread to the fourth, fifth
and sixth floors.
It took more than 100
firefighters two hours to
bring the flames under
control.
"It was a very tough fire,"
said FDNY Deputy Chief
Raymond Stanton. "The
building has undergone
renovation and there were
false ceilings and many
boards that had to be open
to expose the fire.">>> |
FDNY
Rescues Brooklyn Child's Head From Fence With Jaws Of Life
NY Daily News 7/2/09
|

Firefighters from Ladder 101
and Engine 202
bent metal fence bars to free
Leon Stanley. |
Firefighters receive state-of-the-art
training to battle raging infernos, dangerous building collapses and
even terrifying terrorist attacks.
But sometimes it's just as rewarding to rescue a 2-year-old Brooklyn boy
who got his head wedged in a metal park fence.
"This is one of those things you don't see a lot, but you have to be
ready for everything," chuckled Firefighter Michael Troiano.
Precocious toddler Leon Stanley's unexpected adventure began just after
11:30 a.m. when he and his father went for a walk near their Red Hook
home.
Enjoying the sunshine, the pair strolled along Van Brunt St. toward
Mother Cabrini Park. Stanley, 38, turned his head for a moment and
suddenly heard his son cry out>>>
Grace Under Pressure
Rudy Giuliani's Trial By Fire
Success Magazine 7/2/09

It's 11
a.m. on a
warm day in
April and
Rudy
Giuliani is
running
late. Long
after
trading in
his Gracie
Mansion
address, the
meticulous,
Brooklyn-born,
street-kid-turned-crisis-management
icon is in
hot demand.
His tightly
managed
schedule is
calculated
to the
minute with
marathon
television
appearances
that began
on this day
at daybreak.
The topic
today:
renaming the
site of the
110-story
twin towers
destroyed in
the Sept.
11, 2001,
terrorist
attacks.
Plans called
for a
1,776-foot
skyscraper,
One World
Trade
Center.
Instead of a
building,
Giuliani
tells
interviewers
he prefers a
memorial to
mark this
hallowed
ground.
Giuliani—grandson
of Italian
immigrants,
former
prosecutor
who brought
down
mobsters and
white-collar
criminals,
former mayor
credited
with
cleaning up
the Big
Apple—will
be forever
linked to
the events
of 9/11.
We’ll
forever
remember the
video images
of him with
ash-dusted
head and
shoulders
and surgical
mask in hand
as he walked
from the
disaster
site minutes
after the
first tower
collapsed.
Other city
officials
following
him grimace
and clasp
coats to
their faces
to protect
against the
thick dust,
but Giuliani
keeps
walking,
speaking
into the
camera
urging calm>>>
Supreme Court Refuses Case By Sept. 11 Victims' Families
NY Times 6/29/09
The Supreme Court
on Monday refused to hear an appeal brought by
families and insurers of victims of the Sept.
11, 2001, attacks, in an effort to link the
Saudi royal family to the financing of Al Qaeda
and terrorism.
The decision lets
stand a lower court ruling that found Saudi
Arabia and members of the royal family could not
be sued in American court because of a 1976 law
granting sovereign immunity to foreign
countries.
The Obama
administration angered some victims’ families
last month by supporting the Saudis’ claim to
immunity, citing among other factors the
significant diplomatic implications raised by
the case>>>
Staten Island Ferry Hard Landing Injures 15 At St. George Pier
NY Daily News 7/2/09
More than a dozen passengers were injured
Wednesday night when a packed Staten Island ferry lost power as it was
docking and smashed into a pier, officials said.
Panic quickly spread among the passengers of the 2,700-ton John J.
Marchi ferry when the captain announced over loudspeakers that the ship
had no power, witnesses said.
"He kept repeating, 'Passengers, hold on. Passengers, hold on,' " said
rider Daniel Kusrow, 38.
"It was clear something was about to happen. The first impact was
impressive. It popped open the security doors. It was like a car hitting
a wall," said Kusrow, of St. George, S.I.>>>
Revelations And Overruns Still Haunt Deutsche Bldg.
The Tribeca Trib 7/1/09

Last month, accounts
of more budget overruns, accusations of fraud and
damning revelations of incompetence darkened the
ongoing and much troubled story of the
deconstruction of the former Deutsche Bank tower at
130 Liberty St. Now more than four years behind the
schedule that officials set for it in 2004, the
building, fatally damaged on 9/11, is set to come
down next January.
MONTHS LATE, MILLIONS OVER BUDGET
Lower Manhattan Development Corp. officials
announced on June 11 that they may need as much as
$35 million more in public money to finish tearing
down the building. The agency authorized sinking
another $20 million into its contract with Bovis
Lend Lease, the project’s general contractor,
raising the total cost of the job to more than $173
million. Another $10-15 million will need to be
authorized by the end of the summer.
Avi Schick, the agency’s executive director, said he
was hoping to fund the increases with a complex
combination of proceeds from insurance claims and
federal grant money.
“Over the next several weeks, we’ll have to develop
a strategy [for payment],” Schick said.
If that fails, the LMDC would need to request
additional federal funding, a process that would
take months to complete and could delay the
building’s demolition even longer>>>
City
Island Firehouse Stays Open Despite Budget's Plan For Shutdown
NY Daily News 7/2/09
Who says you can't fight City Hall?
Elated City Islanders are celebrating the reversal of a plan to shut
down the island's only FDNY ladder company at night.
"For seven long months, it was City Island versus City Hall - and City
Island won," said a jubilant City Councilman James Vacca.
City budget cutters had originally planned to shut down Ladder 53 from 6
p.m. to 9 a.m., leaving the isolated islanders dependent on mainland
firehouses for rescue services at night.
City Island residents worried that response from the other firehouses
would be much slower than that of the City Island firehouse at
169Schofield St.
Early last Sunday, a two-alarm fire proved them right>>>
Sentencing For Wife Of FDNY Marshal
Newsday 7/2/09
The widow of a New York
City fire marshal faces prison for shooting him to death
while he slept.
Forty-year-old Janet Redmond-Mercereau (mer-ser-OH')
could face 25 years to life in prison when she is
sentenced Thursday afternoon.
A Staten Island jury convicted her of second-degree
murder on May 21.
Thirty-eight-year-old Douglas Mercereau was found in
their home on Dec. 2, 2007. He had been shot three times
in the head.
Redmond-Mercereau told
investigators she never heard the gunshots. She said she
was wearing earplugs and sleeping in another room with
one of their children, who was sick.
Volunteers Needed For Sept. 11 Ceremony
The Villages Daily Sun 7/2/09
Those who sacrificed their lives to save
others during the events of Sept. 11, 2001, will not be forgotten.
On Sept. 11, the FDNY 343 Memorial Club will celebrate the lives of
those who died when airliners piloted by terrorists crashed into the
World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and
into a field in
Pennsylvania on the way to Washington>>>
Three Die At
Queens Sewage Plant From Toxic Fumes
NY Daily News
6/29/09
Three
workers, including a Brooklyn father and
his son, died Monday after apparently
being overcome by poisonous gas while
trying to unclog an 18-foot-deep
cesspool at a Queens sewage plant,
officials said.
Firefighters raced to Royal Waste
Services Inc. on Douglas Ave. in Jamaica
at 2:32 p.m., but the men were dead at
the scene.
"They went in and got trapped in the
sewer," said Abe Rosenthal, a friend of
the victims. "This is unbelievable."
The men worked for the S. Dahan Sewer
Specialists, which was hired by Royal
Waste to unclog a drain at the bottom of
the 18-foot-deep by 3-foot-wide drywell.
Police said one of the owners of the
company, Shlomo Dahan, and his son,
Harel, perished in the accident.
Harel Dahan, 23, lost his footing and
fell into the cesspool while trying to
unstop the drain with a long pipe
plunger, cops said. The drain was
apparently clogged by debris from recent
rainstorms.
Shlomo Dahan, 49, climbed down the hole
to rescue his son, but was overcome by
toxic fumes, police said. When he failed
to emerge or respond to cries of
co-workers, Royal Waste employee Rene
Francisco Rivas, 52, climbed down the
hole and was overcome, too, cops said.
"It appears it was the high levels of
hydrogen sulfide that overcame the
victims," said FDNY Deputy Assistant
Chief John Sudnik>>>
Swimmer Critical
After Rescue Off Coney Island
9/11 Memorial
Exhibition - 'A Space Within' - Opens At New
York's Center For Architecture
Rockaways Water
Rescue Pays
Dividends
Fire Officers
Disciplined in Deutsche Bank Fire
Documents Back Saudi Link To Extremists
Boat Explosion
Shakes Throgs Neck
'The
Whole Building Just Fell': Building Collapse In Ft. Greene, Brooklyn, Injures 4
Brooklyn Building
Collapses
After The Fall - Scaffold, Rain Eyed In B'klyn Collapse
Suspicious Bronx Fire Injures 13, Including 4 Firefighters
Firefighter Helps Son Battle Disease
Fitting Tribute
Obama Saudi Suit Stance Irks 9/11 Families
Firefighters Rescue Worker
Who Fell at Construction Site
Staten Island Firehouse Receives Grant
Honoring Lt. Robert Ryan
Fire
Commissioner Named FDNY
Columbia Association's Man Of The Year
Scoppetta Gets Another Pass
State Labor Dept.: FDNY Not At Fault In Trainee's Death
Firefighters
Rescue Unconscious Woman From Burning,
Smoke-Filled Manhattan Apartment
Fire In Manhattan
High-Rise
9/11, Info Sharing And "The Wall"
NYC Budget Deal Saves Firehouses
FDNY Hero Rescues
Thousands Before Losing His Life On 9/11