Black Sunday

Black Sunday has been used to describe January 23, 2005, when three firefighters of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) died in two fires: two at a tenement fire in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx, with four others being seriously injured, and one at a house fire in the East New York section of Brooklyn. It was the deadliest day for the FDNY since the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001, and the first time since 1918 that firefighters had died at two separate incidents on the same day. Fires Bronx fire The Bronx fire started on the third floor of a tenement at 236 East 178th Street off the Grand Concourse, and may have been caused by an extension cord to a portable heater setting fire to a mattress. Three alarms were called: Engine Company 42, Ladder Company 33, Ladder Company 27, and Rescue Company 3 were involved in fighting the fire. The alarm call was made at 7:59 a.m., one day after a blizzard, and snow hampered the engines in reaching the address; the closest hydrant was frozen, and some hoses were either frozen or cracked. The apartments had been illegally subdivided using drywall partitions. Six firefighters on the fourth floor were trapped when the fire flashed through the door of the apartment, and at 8:30 to 8:32 a.m., unable to find a fire escape, they jumped from the windows. Only two had an escape rope, which one of them had bought for himself. Two were killed in the fall: John G. Bellew and Lieutenant Curtis W. Meyran, who was in command of Ladder 27. The other four, Brendan Cawley, Jeff Cool, Joe DiBernardo, and Gene Stolowski, were severely injured and disabled and had to retire. DiBernardo died six years later; he had been promoted to lieutenant in May 2005 and Bellew received a posthumous promotion.