FDNY Lt. Joseph DiBernardo died 6 years after being injured on Black Sunday
Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano oughta fight as hard for Lt. Joseph
DiBernardo as this genuine hero fought for the city. The family of FDNY
Lt. Joseph DiBernardo Jr., who died Sept. 22 after enduring six
agonizing years of injuries suffered in the infamous 2005 Black Sunday
fire, isn’t looking for one red cent of taxpayer money.
“His mother and I seek no financial gain or benefits from the city
our son died serving,” says retired FDNY Assistant Deputy Chief Joseph
DiBernardo Sr. “All we seek is justice for our hero son — line-of-duty
recognition — so he can join all those other heroes on the Wall of
Honor in FDNY headquarters.”
How soon we forget.
On Jan 23, 2005, “a freight train of fire,” as one firefighter called
it, raced through an E. 178th St. tenement in Morris Heights, the
Bronx, that had been illegally subdivided into a maze. Two of the city’s
Bravest, Lt. Curtis Meyran and Firefighter John Bellew, became trapped
in a fourth-floor inferno, faced with burning to death or jumping 50
feet down.
They jumped and died. Their names are enshrined on the Wall of Honor.
In another fourth-floor room, Firefighter Joseph DiBernardo Jr. had a
rescue rope and, because he was single and childless, he insisted on
lowering Firefighter Jeff Cool, who was married with kids.
Heroes do stuff like that.
DiBernardo held the rope as Cool shimmied down before losing his
grip. He dropped three stories, and lived. Then, with flames slurping
around him, DiBernardo tied off and lowered himself. Ten feet down, the
rope broke. DiBernardo plunged 40 feet, breaking every bone below his
waist.
“Joseph almost died twice in the hospital from respiratory arrest and
pneumonia, infection,” says his father, a Vietnam veteran who spent 35
years with the FDNY, the last 15 in the South Bronx. “He received skin
grafts, vocal therapy, physical therapy, psychological counseling. He
had to learn how to walk again.”
Before the 2005 fire, Joseph Jr., 34, took no prescription
medication. After Black Sunday, he was prescribed 10 daily meds,
including nerve blockers, blood-pressure pills, powerful painkillers and
anti-depressants.
“He toured the country lecturing on fire safety,” says Joe Sr. “At
10, Joe played with a toy fire engine. I’d take him to my firehouse to
eat with the guys and ride the rig. He became a fire alarm dispatcher,
then a firefighter. He worked big jobs for Rescue 3 but was off on 9/11
when his whole unit died. I dug with him in Ground Zero for months.”
On Jan 25, 2005, Joe Jr. raced into the hell house on E. 178th St. and performed a master class in heroics.
And he worked heroically to cope with the consequences. By last fall,
he had enrolled in Nassau Community College to become a counselor, says
Joe Sr.
“But his short-term memory suffered,” his dad says. “On Sept. 22, he
must have been in pain and forgot he already took his meds and took them
again. He overdosed and died. The coroner ruled it an accident.”
Thousands attended Joseph DiBernardo Jr.’s funeral, most of them
firefighters, even though he was denied death in the line of duty
status.
“My son took pain meds and anti-depressants because he had to jump
out of a fourth-story window while serving the citizens of New York,”
says Joe Sr. “The only difference between my Joe and Curt Meyran and
John Bellew, who died heroically, is that my son lived in pain and
anguish for six more years instead of dying that day.”
Joe Sr. says member of the fire officers union met with Commissioner
Cassano about getting Joe Jr. the life of duty recognition. “They told
me Cassano said it wasn’t gonna happen,” says Joe Sr.
If that’s true Cassano somehow can’t follow the straight, sad line
from Black Sunday to Joseph DiBernardo Jr.’s accidental death from
medications prescribed for injuries he suffered at that fire.
“The commissioner is sympathetic to the case but it’s unique,” says
Cassano’s spokesman, Frank Gribbon. “The case has to be voted on by the
FDNY Board of Trustees consisting of the unions and three city reps. The
commissioner has only one vote. We haven’t even received the case yet.”
Joe DiBernardo Sr. says he has a receipt proving he mailed the case to the commissioner on April 25.
“There are 46 precedents in FDNY history where injured firefighters
who died years later were awarded line-of-duty death recognition and a
place on the Wall of Honor,” says Joe DiBernardo Sr. “I know my dead
son’s spirit will never be at peace until he joins Curt and John on that
wall.”
Commissioner Cassano — whom Joe Sr. calls “a good guy” – doesn’t have to jump four stories to do the honorable thing here.
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