Remembering Black Sunday Firefighters

Today marks the anniversary of the devastating Black Sunday fires in 2005, which killed or severely injured seven members of the FDNY. First, Brooklyn firefighter Richard Sclafani died when overcome by smoke at a private house fire. On that same day, five firefighters and a lieutenant became trapped in a Bronx apartment that was consumed by flames and were forced…

Read More

What Are My Rights If I Am Asked For a Drug Test?

The FDNY has a random drug testing program. When a Company is chosen by computer as the subject of a random drug test, the BITS Drug Testing Unit will come to that Company’s firehouse without notice. Presumably they will wait until the Company is in quarters before announcing their presence. When the Drug Testing Unit…

Read More

NYC Firefighters Disability Protection Bill Passes

More than 2,000 New York City Firefighters are a step closer to having disability protections granted to them after the New York State Assembly and Senate unanimously approved legislation granting New York City Firefighters, hired since June 2009, similar disability protections to more senior FDNY firefighters.

Read More

Bill Would Create Cancer Registry for Firefighters

WASHINGTON – Firefighters contract cancer 14% more often than other people because of the toxins they’re exposed to on the job, according to congressional lawmakers who want to establish a registry to track those cancer cases. Legislation unveiled Tuesday would create a National Firefighter Cancer Registry and direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to track the types of…

Read More

Judge Blasts FDNY for Denying Line-of-Duty Pension

The FDNY medical and pension boards acted in bad faith by denying benefits for nine years to the widow of a Sept. 11 responder, a State Supreme Court Justice ruled in a sharply-worded March 22 opinion. Brooklyn Justice Richard Velasquez granted Jackie Fernandez retroactive line-of-duty death benefits for her husband, retired Fire Lieut. Cruz Fernandez,…

Read More

Jury Awards Black Sunday Firefighters $183M in Damages

PRESS RELEASE New York, NY, February 22, 2016 – Today a Bronx jury found both the City of New York and the landlord responsible for the tragedy that occurred on January 23, 2005, a day that will forever be known as “Black Sunday” in the FDNY. The jury awarded damages to five firefighters and their…

Read More