Tag: FDNY

FDNY COVID19 Vaccination Plan Begins

The Fire Department of New York – FDNY COVID19 vaccination plan began in earnest on Tuesday for the front line heroes facing the pandemic in the community.

“I’d like to thank the Department, Chief Medical Officer, the nurses and all the members who made this happen so quickly and worked so hard to bring this vaccine to our members. I have full confidence in the vaccine and its efficacy.

FDNY COVID19 Vaccination Plan Begins

I think this is the path back to what we would consider a normal life and we are encouraging all our members to participate,” says Fire Department of New York Uniformed Firefighters Association Health and Safety Officer Michael Schreiber, who received the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine today along with other FDNY Firefighters.

UFA President Andrew Ansbro says, “I just received my first dose of the Moderna Vaccine and scheduled my second dose. I’m looking forward to society getting back to normal. I encourage all the members in the Department to sign up and get vaccinated.” 

FDNY COVID19 Vaccination Plan Faces Uphill Battle

In early December a poll found fifty percent of FDNY firefighters would decline the vaccination.

The FDNY Moderna COVID-19 Vaccination Plan, conducted by the FDNY Bureau of Health Services (BHS) in conjunction with the Bureau of Operations, continues at FDNY Headquarters in Brooklyn, the FDNY EMS Academy at Fort Totten, and the FDNY Fire Academy on Randall’s Island.

COVID-19 vaccinations began on December 23, and will continue for the next several weeks. As of today, over 1,000 FDNY members have been vaccinated.

It is unclear if the current approved vaccination will work against the new UK COVID19 strain which has been found in Colorado via community transmission.

 

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Forget Rudolph, FDNY Ladder 13 Brings Santa

FDNY Ladder 13 Brings Santa

Forget Rudolph and the reindeers this year. Fire Department of New York – FDNY Ladder 13 brings Santa to the children of Ronald McDonald House New York. This time of year children there normally get a visit from the big man in red.

This year though, due to COVID19, a visit was considered too dangerous for the children there, many of whom have compromised immune systems.

FDNY Ladder 13 Brings Santa

Thirty-five families currently stay at the nonprofit center, all with children with various serious illnesses, including cancer. While COVID19 has caused 2020 to be a tough year for many, these children had it even tougher, and were ready for some Christmas cheer.

Santa knows who has been naughty and nice though and has many friends in the ranks of FDNY.

Instead of a flying sleigh this year, the kids got an up-close view of the big man himself, as he was able to go right up to their windows and say hello thanks to the help of an FDNY firetruck bucket. The joyful scene is being called “the miracle on 73rd Street.”

FDNY Ladder 13 Brings Santa Down The Block

Ladder 13 is housed with Engine 22 at 159 East 85th Street.

Ronald McDonald House holds a special place for Never Forget 9-11 Foundation. Our nonprofit provided organizational guidance and assistance to a Texas teen who formed his own nonprofit aimed at bringing baseball to kids with cancer, Strike Out Kids Cancer Foundation. To date, the organization has brought baseball to kids in multiple cities and states. The teen hopes to continue playing baseball in college.

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FDNY Says No To COVID19 Vaccine

A recent internal Fire Department of New York (FDNY) survey revealed that more than half of the department’s firefighters says no to COVID19 vaccine when it becomes available.

In the past three days, the Uniformed Firefighters Association polled 2,053 members, and around 55 percent of them said they wouldn’t get vaccinated for the virus, Andy Ansbro, the union president, told local New York media. Those polled make up around a quarter of the the union’s 8,200 active members.

No To COVID19 Vaccine

Last month, an FDNY memo stated the department would not mandate firefighters and EMS workers take the COVID vaccine. As of Friday, the FDNY had more than 130 positive cases, with at least six firehouses having three or more cases, a department source told the Post.

In a statement late last month, the International Association of Fire Fighters pushed for firefighters and other first responders to be at the front of the line for the COVID19 vaccine.

A Centers for Disease Control advisory panel, however, recommended last week that health care workers and long-term care facility workers and residents be placed in the 1a priority group for the vaccine.

No To COVID19 Vaccine

Ansbro said that many FDNY firefighters in their 30s and 40s aren’t as threatened by COVID-19, especially if they’ve already battled the virus. He added that he would be getting vaccinated.

“A lot of them probably feel they are not in a risk category, they are younger, stronger, they may have already had it and gotten through it, and feel it’s not their problem,” Ansbro told the Post. “They are more familiar with the coronavirus than they are with the vaccine.”

Skepticism about the vaccine also runs high among FDNY EMS members.

“A few are anxious to get it, but there have been a few dozen (online) responses saying, ‘Thanks, but no  thanks,’ ” Oren Barzilay, president of the Uniformed EMTs, Paramedics and Fire Inspectors union, told the Post. “They were thankful it was not mandatory, because they don’t want to be looked at as test subjects.”

Barzilay added that he would be waiting to see about what independent studies reveal concerning possible side effects before taking the vaccine.

One veteran FDNY member told the Post that the resistance toward the vaccine is a source of frustration.

“The 55 percent doesn’t surprise me. They’re called the Bravest, not the Smartest,” the FDNY member said about members saying “no to COVID19 vaccine.

“It’s saving their lives, and the lives of their co-workers, families, friends, and the people they take care of. They respond to live-threatening medical emergencies. The last thing you want is a family member in dire straits being worked on by an unvaccinated firefighter.”

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John A. McGinty: Disabled Firefighter Performing Stunts

John A. McGinty

John A. McGinty, a former Fire Department of New York (FDNY) Firefighter with a lucrative annual payout for disability is actively working as a stunt man. In 2016 he retired from FDNY citing leg, hip and spinal injuries after 25 years with the department.

The New York City firefighter has been moonlighting as a stuntman — while also raking in a $136,684-a-year disability pension, according to court documents. His acting career goes back to 2004.

John A. McGinty Acting Career

McGinty, 58, works as a professional movie stuntman, according to his own LinkedIn page.

John A. McGinty LinkedIn Profile

John A. McGinty — who also goes by the stage name John Mack — says he is adept at fighting, driving stunts, falls below 30 feet and small fires, according to his own profile on management site CMG Talent.

John A. McGinty CMG Talent Profile

John A. McGinty Double Life

Firefighters who know McGinty blew the whistle on the stuntman and foremer firefighter. They did so after knowing about the retired disability pensioner’s double life after seeing a New York Post story that nearly all the firefighters who retired last year had annual pensions that topped $100,000, mostly on three-quarter disability. Meanwhile Mayor DeBlasio is planning on cutting positions from FDNY EMS despite their being on front lines of COVID19 crisis.

“McGinty is disabled and we watched him build a new porch on his house,” said one neighbor who lives nearby in Neponsit/Rockaway Park area.

“How can you be a stuntman and have a disability with the Fire Department? I don’t get it,” said another neighbor, who requested anonymity.

Another neighbor referred to John A. McGinty as “Johnny Stunts.”

The FDNY’s practice of awarding of three-quarter disability pensions has been a simmering issue over the years. The Post reported a decade ago about a firefighter who obtained a disability pension for a respiratory illness — then went on to compete in triathlons.

McGinty’s double life — retired disabled firefighter and vigorous stuntman — might have remained a secret except that he sued his next-door neighbor in the Rockaways for defamation and claimed the name-calling in front of an actress friend, Julie Reifers, hurt his stuntman/movie acting career.

“The plaintiff is employed as a stuntman and actor with the Screen Actors Guild,” said McGinty in his own suit against neighbor Brian Sullivan, also a retired firefighter.

McGinty alleged in court docs that Sullivan called him a “pedophile,” “chicken hawk” and a “sexual predator” who harassed his wife.

The two also sued each other over a dispute involving a fence Sullivan erected separating their properties.

McGinty’s attorney, Stephen Dachtera, confirmed he has a FDNY medical disability pension and defended his client’s stunt work as appropriate.

“There’s nothing to hide here,” he said. “Just because you’re a stuntman doesn’t mean you’re exerting a great amount of activity. It can be total benign work. He’s doing stunts that are not physically exerting. There’s no fraud here.”

Dachtera claimed information about McGinty’s disability is surfacing now to pressure him to drop his defamation suit against his neighbor, Sullivan.

 

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FDNY Ladder 102, Ambulance Collide Killing 1, Injuring 11

FDNY Ladder 102

FDNY Ladder 102 and an ambulance collided early Thursday morning killing one patient in the ambulance and injuring eleven, including eight members of FDNY.

Ladder 102 ‘T-boned’ the ambulance carrying a heart attack patient at an intersection at about 12:45 a.m. per local news. The patient was pronounced dead and his sister, who was in the ambulance with him, was seriously injured.

The collision caused the ambulance to strike a third vehicle; two people in that vehicle were transported and are in stable condition. Six firefighters and two EMTs were also injured; one EMT sustained a leg injury and another complained of pain. The firefighters’ exact injuries were not reported but were said to not be serious.

Family members said the man who died in the crash was Jamil Almansouri, 59, a local bodega owner, known to his friends as Mike.

Both FDNY vehicles had their lights activated when the crash occurred. Officials said the ladder truck was responding to a fire on the fifth floor of an eight-story building.

The FDNY EMS Union President recently complained about lives being at risk secondary to forecast budget cuts.

FDNY Ladder 102

Ladder Company 102 started out as Ladder 2 in the Brooklyn Fire Department on September 15, 1869. It became part of the Fire Department of the City of New York and was redesignated as Ladder 102 on January 1, 1913.

 

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Star Spangled Banner in London

The Star Spangled Banner was played during the changing of the guard today, nineteen years ago, in honor of the United States which had been attacked the day prior.

The day after the September 11 attacks more than 5000 American tourists and expats gathered at the gates of Buckingham Palace. At the request of Queen Elizabeth II, the band of the Coldstream Guards broke with hundreds of years of tradition to play The Star Spangled Banner during the changing of the guard.

Star Spangled Banner

The decision to play the Star Spangled Banner showed the Queen’s intent to Never Forget 9-11.

Star Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key

“The Star-Spangled Banner” is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the “Defence of Fort M’Henry“, a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key. He wrote the piece after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in Baltimore Harbor during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the large U.S. flag, with 15 stars and 15 stripes, known as the Star-Spangled Banner, flying triumphantly above the fort during the U.S. victory.

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Vice President Pence Takes Part in 9-11 Memorial

Vice President Pence will be taking part in Friday’s anniversary memorial of the 9-11 attacks. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation put out a statement noting they were honored the Vice President of the United States Mike Pence and Second Lady of the United States Karen Pence will take part in the Foundation’s memorial ceremony on Friday, September 11, marking the 19th anniversary of the attacks on our nation.

Vice President Pence

Tunnel to Towers took the unprecedented step to host an independent memorial ceremony  after the National September 11 Memorial & Museum announced the traditional reading of the names by victim’s family members would not happen at their ceremony this year, citing COVID-19 concerns.

“The horrific loss of life, from the largest attack on US soil, a terrorist attack, requires that we read these names out loud, in person, on this day, every year. We can never minimize that fateful day,“said Frank Siller, Chairman and CEO of Tunnel to Towers, who lost his brother FDNY Firefighter Stephen Siller in the attack.

“The Tunnel to Towers Foundation is honored that Vice President Pence will be in attendance at its Reading of the Names ceremony on 9/11. His presence signals the immense gravity of the day and so appropriately honors the fallen, who gave their lives for us 19 years ago. We are grateful to Vice President Pence for helping America to NEVER FORGET.”

Vice President Pence

Michael R. Pence was born in Columbus, Indiana, on June 7, 1959, one of six children born to Edward and Nancy Pence. As a young boy he had a front row seat to the American Dream. After his grandfather immigrated to the United States when he was 17, his family settled in the Midwest. The future Vice President watched his Mom and Dad build everything that matters – a family, a business, and a good name. Sitting at the feet of his mother and his father, who started a successful convenience store business in their small Indiana town, he was raised to believe in the importance of hard work, faith, and family.

Vice President Pence set off for Hanover College, earning his bachelor’s degree in history in 1981. While there, he renewed his Christian faith which remains the driving force in his life. He later attended Indiana University School of Law and met the love of his life, Second Lady Karen Pence.

After graduating, Vice President Pence practiced law, led the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, and began hosting The Mike Pence Show, a syndicated talk radio show and a weekly television public affairs program in Indiana. Along the way he became the proud father to three children, Michael, Charlotte, and Audrey.

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Heartbreaking: FDNY Says Forget Never Forget 9-11

Never Forget 9-11

Never Forget 9-11 events are discouraged according to a new letter sent by FDNY leadership. A letter sent to FDNY members from department leadership urged members not to attend events marking the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks due to health and safety concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

The letter from Commissioner Daniel Nigro and Chief of Department John Sudnik, issued last week, states that members’ commitment to remembering the fallen must be balanced with an obligation to protect the health and safety of current and former members and their families.

Never Forget 9-11 - Twin Lights Replace Twin Towers

“While our workforce has a high level of health and fitness, we must remember that many of our September 11th families and retired members – who we would normally welcome and encourage to attend September 11th events – are in groups that are most at risk for COVID-19 due to age and health,” the letter states.

Nigro and Sudnik wrote that the department is strongly recommending that members forgo the events but that units who still decide to participate in events must follow guidelines set to prevent the spread of the virus, including holding any events or gatherings outdoors only, limiting gatherings to 50 people maximum and requiring all attendees to wear face coverings.

The statement does not mention the 400 expected layoffs to FDNY EMS – many of whom have been on the front lines of the current disaster.

Never Forget 9-11

The concept that FDNY leadership would be so tone deaf to their front line responders – many of whom signed up because of September 11 is unsurprising from this administration per one engine captain. “Once again there is a stark difference between the firehouse and the clubhouse,” he continued.

 

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FDNY Fire Hydrant Justice Served

Fire hydrant justice isn’t just for the movie Backdraft. A video is circulating of FDNY firefighters breaking the windows on a BMW to reach a hydrant during a building fire last week.

Crews responded to a three-story building fire in the Bronx at about 3:30 a.m. Friday, the New York Post reports. Once at the scene, they tried to run a hose but found a 2005 5-Series BMW blocking a nearby hydrant.

Firefighters needed to break the front side-door windows and pull the hose through to get to the hydrant. The move upset the car’s owner, though.

“They didn’t have to do that!” the car’s owner told the Post.

“They (expletive) up my car, and it is going to cost me a bag of money,” he added.

To add insult to injury the owner was also given a $180 ticket for parking in front of the hydrant. He had been parked there for four days after the battery in the car’s key fob had died, according to local accounts.

Crews worked for nearly two hours of get the building fire under control. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries.

Fire Hydrant Code – New York

Readers should keep in mind this is not every day, but there are circumstances where firefighters need these hydrants for water supply. IT is not only illegal, but dangerous for firefighters too when water supply comes into question. Never forget firefighters need these hydrants to keep you and others safe.

Fire Hydrant Laws

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Conquering COVID19 – FDNY EMS Responds

Conquering COVID19

The New York Times profiled two paramedics conquering COVID19 in a piece about EMS response to COVID19 in New York City. The article which looks at the lives of Kenny Cheng and Sean Mahoney responding to “regular” calls and COVID19. The surprise in the reporter’s voice seems to hit the mark again and again: ‘Such is the disturbing new normal for the city’s paramedics, whose days can be mundane until — suddenly — they are not.’ It’s as if the media does not realize this is day to day responding to other people’s worst day.

Conquering COVID19

Conquering COVID19: From classroom to emergency room

The two paramedics, Cheng and Mahoney, are instructors at FDNY Fort Totten (Queens) Station 60. Like 9-11 and Superstorm Sandy, the two have been called back to the streets to alleviate staffing responding to the numerous calls in New York.

Each day the two EMS Instructors with their colleagues gather for a moment of silence. The article recounts the updates on friends and co-workers who contracted COVID19. One comrade in fighting the ugly disease, Idris Bey, was named on Monday, but died by Friday, just four days later.

This pandemic is a reminder that the bravest are often forgotten in their fight against silent killers which are far less spectacular than gun fights or high rise fires.

Conquering COVID19: Protocols

The article also talks briefly about the bizarre symptomology of this disease which has confounded both medics and ER staff. Standard ACLS protocols do not seem to be as effective – and may be inapproppriate according to some researchers.

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