Firefighters

By Bill Gault The recent deaths of our brothers Robert Neary and Daniel Sweeney in the Kensington warehouse inferno have resulted in raw, emotional turmoil among the city's firefighters. These tragic deaths have galvanized our union membership like never before and we're now taking the fight directly to the Nutter administration and the current leadership of the Philadelphia Fire Department. We're angry about the city's insistence on continuing its dangerous brownout policy, while willfully ignoring the facts.

Philadelphia firefighters took two hours Sunday to control a stubborn blaze in a building that forced the evacuation of 10 people in the city's Frankford section. Firefighters were called to the scene in the 4400 block of Paul Street just before 11:30 a.m. and soon called in a second alarm. The fire was under control around 1:30 p.m. Ten people were evacuated from an adjacent building and taken to a nearby church. No injuries were reported. The fire remained under investigation.

Alma and Angel Arroya get food for Christmas from firefighters at the Norris Square Community Center. Fire Commissioner Roger M. Ulshafer and other Philadelphia firefighters distributed meals to 200 low-income families as part of the Fire Department's Outreach Program. Dinners included roasting chicken, vegetables, stuffing, cranberry sauce, potatoes and dessert.

The old Thomas W. Buck Hosiery building, dominating nearly a full block in Kensington, was supposed to be converted into 81 apartments several years ago, but instead it sat vacant. Neighbors lamented its deteriorating and dangerous conditions, fearing the building would burn some day, while its New York owners racked up unpaid tax bills and ignored code violations. The city moved in February to put the property up for sheriff's sale, which can take months. In the end, it was all too late to prevent a tragedy that took the lives of two firefighters.

Firefighters from the Merion Fire Company of Ardmore move garment racks up Greenfield Avenue to their new station house. The company had been quartered in a tent.

Five firefighters were hospitalized after suffering electrical shocks while fighting a blaze in South Philadelphia Thursday afternoon, Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said. The rowhouse fire occurred near the corner of Garnet and McKean Streets around 5 p.m., Ayers said. Three firefighters were transported to Hahnemann University Hospital and the other two were taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Ayers said the firefighters would be kept overnight for observation as a precaution.

After years of debate, Willingboro will be hiring two professional firefighters to add to its volunteer staff of approximately 70. Township manager Sadie Johnson said the firefighters, who are to drive trucks to daytime calls, were expected to begin work before the end of August, as soon as they passed their physical exams. Each firefighter will receive $26,374 a year, the same starting salary as for a township police officer. That the township hire professional firefighters was "the recommendation of the fire company commissioners who came in at budget time and talked to us about the problems they were having with daytime calls," Mayor Doreatha Campbell said.

Two years ago, a Camden firefighter pulled a charred man from a Liberty Street fire, leaving blood on the firefighter's hands and face. The firefighter, who now suffers from Hepatitis B, suspects he may have contracted the disease from the victim's body fluids and blood. But, because the fire victim died, there is no way to prove that the firefighter contracted the disease on the job. And the firefighter, who declined to be identified, still has relapses of the disease, becoming jaundiced and weak.

Five firefighters were hospitalized after their vehicle overturned Wednesday night in Burlington County, authorities said. Their injuries were not life-threatening. The accident occurred at 7:33 p.m. at Route 38 and Smithville Road in Lumberton, authorities said. The vehicle was identified as Engine 1311 of Lumberton Fire Company No. 1. The firefighters were transported to Virtua Memorial Hospital in Mount Holly and Lourdes Medical Center in Willingboro. There was no immediate word on the cause of the accident.

The Philadelphia firefighters union said today that fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers and his two top deputies should resign for a lack of leadership and tactical errors that led to the deaths of two firefighters last month in Kensington. The leaders of Local 22 said the incident commander failed to establish a "collapse zone" around a vacant, century-old mill that sparked into a spectacular five-alarm blaze on April 9. The two firefighters - Lt. Robert P. Neary and Firefighter Daniel Sweeney - were killed when one of the mill's five-story walls collapsed on an adjacent furniture store, where they were doing a routine check.

Philadelphia firefighters took two hours Sunday to control a stubborn blaze in a building that forced the evacuation of 10 people in the city's Frankford section. Firefighters were called to the scene in the 4400 block of Paul Street just before 11:30 a.m. and soon called in a second alarm. The fire was under control around 1:30 p.m. Ten people were evacuated from an adjacent building and taken to a nearby church. No injuries were reported. The fire remained under investigation.

By Bill Gault The recent deaths of our brothers Robert Neary and Daniel Sweeney in the Kensington warehouse inferno have resulted in raw, emotional turmoil among the city's firefighters. These tragic deaths have galvanized our union membership like never before and we're now taking the fight directly to the Nutter administration and the current leadership of the Philadelphia Fire Department. We're angry about the city's insistence on continuing its dangerous brownout policy, while willfully ignoring the facts.

The recent announcement of plans for a new memorial to Philadelphia's fallen police and firefighters was, sadly, well timed. Only days before, two Fire Department veterans, Lt. Robert P. Neary and Firefighter Daniel Sweeney, were killed battling a blaze at a forsaken factory building in Kensington. The new monument promises to be a somber, elegant, and welcome replacement for Franklin Square's existing Living Flame Memorial. Still, even as the city mourns Neary and Sweeney, the countless blighted buildings that pervade its landscape remain an undignified memorial to their deaths — and a harbinger of future catastrophe.

Fire officials in Cheltenham Township are investigating who might have been in the area of a vacant country club building that went up in flames late Sunday. The three-alarm fire, which lit the night sky, already was through the roof of the former Cedarbrook Country Club building when the first of 100 firefighters arrived just after 10:30 p.m. Fire Marshal Joseph O'Neill said the building in the 8400 block of Limekiln Pike was a total loss, although he could not estimate its worth.

AND THE WINNING design for a new memorial for fallen firefighters and police officers goes to . . . Roman Torres, Adam Montalbano and Eric Oskey of Moto Designshop in Old City! Their design, unveiled Thursday, is for a 110-by-80-foot commemorative site to be located near Franklin Square's main entrance, at 6th and Race streets. Visitors will walk, as if in a procession, toward a white marble cubelike structure - representing a firefighter's or police officer's badge - with a black stone band wrapped around the middle.

The winning design for a new memorial for fallen firefighters and police officers was unveiled Thursday morning. The 110-by-80-foot commemorative site will be near Franklin Square's main entrance at Sixth and Race Streets in Center City. The design team? Roman Torres, Adam Montalbano and Eric Oskey of Moto Designshop in Old City. At a news conference Thursday morning at the Philadelphia chapter of the American Institute of Architects, they explained the concept. Visitors will walk toward a white marble structure - representing the badge of a firefighter or police officer - with a black stone band wrapped around the middle.

A Philadelphia grand jury will investigate the Kensington blaze that killed two firefighters last week to determine if criminal charges are warranted, the District Attorney's Office said Tuesday. Mayor Nutter, who has sharply criticized the owners of the former Thomas W. Buck Hosiery building for not responding to safety citations issued by the city, said he supported the grand jury's involvement. "It will help us to get some answers to a number of unanswered questions. . . . It is absolutely the most appropriate next step," Nutter said.

MONDAY'S blaze was Philadelphia's third fatal fire in a week. A kitchen grease fire sparked a Sunday blaze that killed a 4-year-old girl and her 79-year-old great-grandmother in a North Philadelphia rowhouse. And on April 9, two firefighters died in a warehouse blaze in Kensington when the building collapsed. This week's eight suddenly raised the year's tally to 16, equalling the number who had died by the same time last year. - Dana DiFilippo