PHOTO: Wale Fatade

By Sean Leahy and Wale Fatade

he deaths of two New York firefighters during a Bronx fire in the early hours of Jan. 23 highlighted the value of the one piece of equipment a firefighter hopes he never has to use – a personal safety rope.  “It’s for one purpose and one purpose only,” said Peter Gorman, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, “to evacuate a firefighter if his life is in danger.”

The rope, about 40 feet long, can be carried on the back or the belt of a firefighter when he responds to a call.  As a tool of last resort, a firefighter can use the rope to rappel out a window to a safer area below if he is trapped by flames in a New York City tenement.

The FDNY, claiming the bulk of the ropes added too much to the firefighters’ equipment, discontinued them in 2000.  After the Bronx fire, the department has now committed to reissuing them, but their absence in recent years may have contributed to the tragedy.

The fire trapped six firefighters on the fourth story of 236 E. 178th St. that morning.  The two who died, Lt. Curtis Meyran and Firefighter John Bellew, jumped from the rear window.  But two of the survivors, firefighters Jeffrey Cool and Joseph DiBernardo, used Cool’s utility rope, which he had decided on his own to carry, fastened to a child safety gate to lower themselves partially to the ground before falling. 

In 1996, every New York City firefighter had a personal safety rope issued by the department.  Because of their bulk and rising costs, the department decided then to issue ropes only to members of ladder companies.  It was the first in a series of decisions that would end the disbursement of personal safety ropes by 2000.

The unions representing the fire officers and firefighters fought the decisions vehemently, but then-commissioner Thomas von Essen was convinced that the ropes were not essential and that firefighters’ safety would not be compromised despite dissenting recommendations from his deputies. 

Von Essen left the department at the end of 2001, and its current leadership refused to speculate on what role ropes might have played in preventing the deaths at that Bronx fire.  “It was a totally different administration,” said department spokesman Mike Loughran about the elimination of personal safety ropes.  “It’s not for us to look back on.” MORE>>