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CNN Live At Daybreak
New York City Mourns Deaths of Three Firefighters
Aired June 19, 2001 - 07:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Wakes are planned today and tomorrow for three New York firefighters. They died Sunday in a fiery explosion at a hardware store in Queens. This is tough time, as you can imagine, for New York City and its fire department. Joining us this morning is New York Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen. Good morning, Mr. Commissioner, and please accept our condolences for this family of firefighters. I know it's been a very tough time for you.
THOMAS VON ESSEN, NEW YORK FIRE COMMISSIONER: Thank you, Carol.
LIN: Fifty-seven people were also injured in this blast, one of them a firefighter and in serious condition. Can you update us on how he's doing?
VON ESSEN: Slightly better. We are still very concerned. He has multiple ruptures of hollow organs throughout his body, but he made some slight improvement yesterday and we're very encouraged.
LIN: Commissioner, when this call went out yesterday, was it viewed pretty much as a routine call? Was there any indication that it might get explosive?
VON ESSEN: No. Well, you always have to be concerned about that with a hardware store, knowing what's stored in the basement, but this really snuck up on the guys. They were surrounding it, attacking it in every possible way, trying to get in there as quickly as possible to put the fire at as fast so to avoid something like this. But it must have been burning longer than they were aware of. There was probably more serious fire in the basement than was visible as they began to get inside and it just blew up without any warning, really.
LIN: You mentioned yesterday, propane tanks stored in the basement, no sprinkler system installed there. Do you think criminal charges are going to be filed in this case?
VON ESSEN: I have no reason to believe that at this point. We have no reason to believe that the owner of the store broke any laws. The sprinkler law is not required. Sprinklers aren't required for that type of business at that level of flammables that he had stored. We're just saying that the laws are minimum. It's a minimum standard, and if we had sprinklers in that building, it would have put out fires before it reached that level of intensity, and we wouldn't have had this tragedy.
LIN: Do you want to see those laws change?
VON ESSEN: I'd love to see them changed. We made some improvements two years ago with improving the laws for the future. We were unable to get any real retro legislation to go back into a business like this and require sprinklers. I'd love to see that one positive thing come out of this horrible tragedy.
LIN: Commissioner, I think it struck everybody, the circumstances of that day. It was Father's Day. The call went out. Many of these firefighters were barbecuing in their own backyards with their children and now eight kids, as I understand, are without their fathers. What do firefighters tell their children about the nature of the job and what can happen?
VON ESSEN: Well, every firefighter knows that he's always susceptible to this type of tragedy. They go to work every day knowing that they are doing something so positive that people really respect them and people appreciate them. They can look kids in the eye and know they might not be making -- be getting great financial awards, but every day come home with positive feeling they've done good, unlike so many other professions, and that's what makes this job -- makes people so proud of it and the traditions that live so long, the pride and the dedication of the firefighters is phenomenal not just in New York City, but throughout the country. It's a wonderful group of people that really do spend their days trying to help others in any way possible.
LIN: And certainly, three very exceptional men lost. Harry Ford, I understand, was cited nine times for bravery. You talk about a tradition amongst firefighters and the love and respect, and I understand that firefighters around the country are going to be attending the memorial services, including firefighters from Worcester, Massachusetts, who lost six of their own last year.
VON ESSEN: That was a horrible tragedy. Many firefighters from New York City went up there to pay their respects. We have a very close bond with Boston and Philadelphia, some of the other big cities that are close to us. It's the same type of department. We do aggressive interior attacks. We try to get in buildings as quickly as possible to make sure everybody is safe. So, there is a tremendous bond between all the local big cities.
LIN: All right, well, a very sad occasion indeed to get together. Thank you very much, Commissioner Von Essen.
VON ESSEN: Thank you.
LIN: Once again, our condolences.
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