Rescue 003

[patries]

Cristopher Blackwell (http://www.fallenbrothers.com/community/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=64)

Thomas Foley (http://www.fallenbrothers.com/community/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=152)

Thomas Gambino JR. (http://www.fallenbrothers.com/community/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=157)

Raymond Meisenheimer (http://www.fallenbrothers.com/community/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=263)

Donald Regan (http://www.fallenbrothers.com/community/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=329)

Gerard Schrang (http://www.fallenbrothers.com/community/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=351)

Joseph Spor (http://www.fallenbrothers.com/community/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=358)

[SeaBreeze]

Rescue 3 Homepage (http://www.fdnyrescue3.com/)

[SeaBreeze]

NEW YORK: In a series of in-depth interviews, New York City firefighters talk about the future. The department they've devoted their lives to is on the verge of a tumultuous future – one for which no one is prepared.

By Kristina Wells and Jason Doce
Times Herald-Record

It's only a matter of time.
Six months. A year. Soon.

No one in the New York City Fire Department knows exactly when the crisis will occur, but when it does, firefighters say the nation's largest department will face unprecedented challenges and an uncertain future.

They anticipate a mass exodus of experienced veterans opting for lucrative retirement packages. Their force is getting younger and less experienced. And low morale is taking its toll.

The end result: "More people are going to get hurt – civilian and uniform," said fire Lt. Gerry Rogan of Thomspon Ridge. His brother died in the attacks on the World Trade Center.

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, New York's Bravest have mourned the loss of 343 of their own while picking up the pieces at Ground Zero.

That one day took the lives of their renowned Deputy Chief Ray Downey and 93 members of the elite Special Operations Command, which Downey supervised.

"You can replace bodies," said William Mirro, recording secretary for the Uniformed Firefighters Association. "You can't replace experience."

4,000 years lost

Stress, grief and guilt wear them down as they continue to answer calls and risk their lives. Add to that a new mayor trying to keep the city in the black, a new fire commissioner trying to heal the more than 11,000 firefighters who lost comrades and veterans wanting to call it quits.

"Anybody with 20 years right now is getting out or thinking of getting out," said firefighter Ray Phillips of Washingtonville, a 28-year veteran who expects to hang up his helmet at Rescue 3 within the year. "We're losing a guy every two weeks. We're losing the ones with the most experience."

Before Sept. 11, the department saw an average of 500 retirements each year. Mirro said the city plans to hire 900 firefighters before June, anticipating retirement rates may double.

A firefighter's pension upon retirement is based on the previous year's earnings. Those who spent days and weeks at Ground Zero since Sept. 11 are accumulating unprecedented amounts of overtime. That alone makes retirement tempting, some say. A firefighter worked an average of 75 hours overtime each year before Sept. 11. Now that number is 300, Mirro said.

Capt. Ralph Tiso of Rescue 3 in the Bronx is charged with the toughest assignment of his career – replacing seven men lost on Sept. 11, several of them among the hundreds of city firefighters who live in Orange County. Tiso called one of those lost, firefighter Tommy Foley, his "firehouse son."

Tiso has replaced four of the lost men. When the 32-year veteran replaces the remaining three, he'll retire, hopefully by late spring.

Battalion Chief Brian Dixon, a spokesman for the fire commissioner's office, offered an incredible statistic: The 343 firefighters who died Sept. 11 had a total of 4,000 years experience.

"You just don't suck this up," said Phillips.

Battalion Chief John Norman, commander of special operations who replaced Downey, said the department has already taken steps to replace those lost Sept. 11. Since October, special operations has recruited and trained nearly 100 firefighters for the unit.

The department, already considered fairly young by Mirro's standards, will continue to get younger and less experienced as the years go on. Union officials estimate 4,000 of the 9,000 members have less than 10 years of experience, Mirro said.

"The meat of the order is gone," said Mirro. "That's where we're at. You just can't replace experience."

FDNY may now be saddled with the uncertain leadership of those who haven't fought a high-rise fire, haven't ventilated explosive gases, haven't seen enough tenement fires.

"It should take you 12 to 15 years to make lieutenant," Tiso said. "Now we have chiefs with less than 20 years, chiefs that have never been on a roof when that roof was cut."

They saw and heard unimaginable things Sept. 11, scenes reserved until now for those embroiled in war, images of horror most won't see in a lifetime.

Phillips responded to the World Trade Center and, within minutes, pulled a dying firefighter from the chaos.

"I thought: 'We're not even an hour into this fire and we've already lost a guy."

These memories are haunting the men. The signs of post traumatic stress disorder and physical symptoms from inhaling toxic fumes at Ground Zero are beginning to surface.

And for men who also lost loved ones, the pain is twice as hard.

Some firefighters question the quality of that counseling. Tiso scoffed at what's being offered – help from three fellow firefighters who've been trained in the issues of alcohol and drug abuse, not in loss and grief.

"They tell us we've got to get on with our lives," Tiso said.

Dixon said the department's counseling resources have been "spread a little thin." But he said the city has provided counselors in all five boroughs, Long Island and in several counties, including Orange.

The fear among these men is what happens in the months to come. Firefighters say when there are no more bodies to find at Ground Zero, the full weight of the department's loss will hit them in the form of anxiety, depression and despair. It could lead many in their ranks to divorce, alcohol and shattered lives.

They see that what happened to the Oklahoma City Fire Department following the bombing at the Alfred P. Murrah federal building will happen to them.

Five firefighters committed suicide in the months after the bombing; spousal abuse increased; many turned to alcohol to ease the pain; and the increased number of divorces was alarming, said Phillips, who was privy to the information released by officials recently.

Dixon said the Oklahoma City Fire Department has acted in an advisory role to help the FDNY recognize potential problems.

"We know that everyone has been affected by this,'' Dixon said. "We know that some have the capacity to put it in perspective and deal with it. And others need an intervention, and we're ready with that intervention."

Members of FDNY have spent hours on the job, sifting through the rubble at Ground Zero – what they call "The Pile" – where success is often measured in the grim discovery of body parts. They return to their wives and kids exhausted, beaten down.

"It's going to fracture marriages. It's taking it's toll," Norman said. "They've spent so much time at The Pile, they've hurt their families."

Phillips' daughter, Courtney, wrote a letter to former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani: "My dad's not missing, but he might as well be because he's never home." It hit Phillips hard. "Lots of guys are having problems at home," he said.

Fighting fires in the Big Apple is a job these men love. The love of the job is often passed from father to son. And even now, four months after Sept. 11, men and women continue to sign up for the job.

The department graduated 312 probies – or probationary firefighters – the first week of January, virtually replenishing the number lost Sept. 11.

But morale is low. It has been for years, some say, and they feel the city's outgoing administration lost a great opportunity following the disaster.

"Part of this whole job is the camaraderie and how difficult it really is when somebody dies. But to lose 343 guys in one fell swoop," Rogan said. "This is a bad start." City officials agree.

"Morale is low," said Dixon, the commissioner's spokesman. "But still, people, God bless them, are going out and performing their jobs and doing it well. ... I can't give you any concrete 'here's how we'll boost morale.' "

Firehouse walls are covered with banners, letters, photos from throughout the world, each expressing admiration, inspiration, love. Famous ballplayers now wear FDNY hats. Books are being written about them.

"This magnified what they do every day; it doesn't have to be a large fire," Dixon said. "It happens every day, and they do it because they're a dedicated group of people, a unique group who will risk their lives to save others."


http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2002/01/16/kwjdnewf.htm

Capt. Ralph Tiso of Rescue 3 in the Bronx

[SeaBreeze]

New firefighters, gear rebuild shattered unit

By PATRICE O'SHAUGHNESSY
Daily News Staff Writer

Firefighter Mickey Conboy, in a well-worn turnout coat and helmet bearing a white "3" on a blue background, stood at ease in the nighttime chill outside a Washington Heights apartment building; a minor kitchen fire had just been doused.

He and five fellow members of Rescue 3 had raced here from their Bronx headquarters the way they race to every fire above 125th St. and to every building collapse in the city: poised for peril.

It was the way seven other Rescue 3 firefighters and their captain raced to the World Trade Center, never to return.

Conboy and his company portray the splendid, bold past of the Fire Department, as well as its recent devastation. And standing there on W. 187th St., his blue eyes doleful but brightened by the flashing red lights, the 17-year veteran bespoke the future of a wounded FDNY.

"We lost a lot of great guys, but there are still a lot of great guys left," Conboy said. "The spirit of those 343 men lives on in us. People rely on us and we rely on each other. The department as a whole will carry on."

Rescue 3, like the other fire companies throughout the city, has been quietly rebuilding itself after the enormous losses of Sept. 11.

The storied company received seven firefighters to replace those killed at the twin towers. It is back to responding to all fires in its area, and high-tech equipment destroyed or damaged at the twin towers has been replaced.

"I lost a friend here, and I felt like I had the experience to fill a void," said Firefighter Jeff Cool, who came in October to the company where his pal Tom Foley gained fame for his daring and his dark good looks.

"You never really fill it, I guess," Cool said, pulling on his boots beneath a banner listing the names of the dead and the heading, "Gone but not forgotten, the men of Rescue 3."
"I'm trying to step up. Tom was just a great firefighter."
So Cool left Ladder 19 in the Bronx, where he had worked 10 years, and is learning the ropes, literally, of rappelling a building or tying a victim securely into a rescue basket, from the 20- and 30-year-plus veterans.

Most of the firefighters in Rescue 3 wear their years of seasoning in lined faces or bushy mustaches streaked with gray. They are led by Capt. Ralph Tiso, a 33-year veteran from the days when arson ravaged the South Bronx.

"When our rig goes out, you have 100 years of experience riding on that truck," said Firefighter Greg Einsfeld, a 22-year veteran with eight years in Rescue 3.

Six hundred new firefighters have joined the FDNY since Sept. 11; half have completed training and are in engine and ladder companies. The special operations units — which lost all 94 men who responded that day — were replenished with experienced firefighters who requested transfers.

The special ops firefighters extricate people from car wrecks, subway crashes and fires using a range of derring-do: They lower themselves from roofs, crawl into basements, wedge themselves into confined spaces.
A New Landscape

Rescue 3, dubbed Big Blue, had 27 close-knit members, firefighters who knew each others' moves in the thick of action, as well as their comrades' wives and children. Now, a quarter of the company is new.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm in a different company," said the senior member, Firefighter Mike Morrissey, with 13 years in Rescue 3 and 23 in the department.

Lt. John Olson, a 33-year veteran who has been in Rescue 3 for eight years, wears a silver POW-style bracelet engraved with fallen comrade Ray Meisenheimer's name.

"I know who I work with, how they go about everything," Olson said. "The new guys, they know what to do, but I don't know exactly how they'll do it. When the team is cohesive it operates better."

Last year, Rescue 3 responded to 2,253 runs, assisting in 732. It also responded to 144 building collapses. The last three months of 2001, the members were frequently out of service, to be at Ground Zero.

Olson said it took a while to get everybody back on line. "At first we just responded to third alarms, then second alarms, and by the beginning of December we were back to responding to every fire.

"Guys were hurting; the department thought it was better if they were not going all day long, but it got to the point we were staring at the wall," Olson said. "After six or eight weeks, we had to start doing things. ... it was murder being in the firehouse."

After five months, life goes on for Rescue 3 firefighters. They laughed last week as they shared a birthday cake for Morrissey, with wooden matches for candles. But they still go to Ground Zero to search for six members yet to be found, and there are other duties, more heartbreaking for their ordinariness.

On Feb. 7, six of the guys donned their dress blue uniforms and attended a talent show at Babylon High School on Long Island to watch Brian Gambino play in a rock band, because his father, Thomas, could not be there. This week, Alex Blackwell has a big hockey game, and members of Rescue 3 will try to stand in for her father, Chris.

Thirteen minutes before 9 a.m. on Sept. 11, Gambino and Blackwell were among eight men in Rescue 3 headquarters, a century-old firehouse on E. 176th St. near the Metro-North tracks that rise onto Park Ave., in a hard-luck neighborhood a dozen miles from the gleaming skyscrapers downtown.

They sat at the oak table painted with their mascot, a blue monster in fire gear. Six had just arrived for the day shift, two were there from the night before.

Capt. Brian Hickey, who commanded Rescue 4 in Queens, was filling in that day for Tiso. Hickey had been injured many times on the job, and survived the Father's Day fire last year that claimed two of his Rescue 4 members.

Donald Regan was the go-to guy for electrical problems at fires. Meisenheimer was an expert on trench rescue techniques used in construction sites. Gerard Schrang would keep everyone on their toes with his acerbic humor. Foley was named one of People magazine's 100 most eligible bachelors, grabbing notice after he rappelled the side of a building to save a dangling construction worker. Blackwell was a paramedic long before it was required for firefighters. Gambino was devoutly Catholic and hardworking. Joseph Spor, a deft carpenter, had just arrived at Rescue 3 on Aug. 20. Seven were fathers, with 21 children among them.

A "10-60" — major emergency signal — sounded after the north tower was attacked. The eight men speeded downtown a mile a minute and were the second rescue company to arrive at the Trade Center. They entered the south tower.

Rescue 3 is also the citywide building-collapse unit, so its members had taken the red tractor-trailer they call "home depot on wheels" — with lumber and hydraulic struts to shore up weak structures, telescopic search cameras to look for the trapped, sight equipment to gauge building cracks, and saws that cut through cement. The equipment was used to search for them and the catastrophe's other victims.

More than a week later, surviving members of Rescue 3 working at the ruins found helmets with their emblem. "We zeroed in on that area and started digging," recalled Lt. Jerry Murtha, 25-year vet with 12 years in Rescue 3. They found Schrang and Foley.
"Firefighter Danny Foley was digging with us, and in the middle of all that he found his own brother," Murtha said.

"People didn't realize at first that we had a loss in the Bronx," Morrissey said. "Then they came with candles, flags, flowers."
The people who lived in the apartment building down the block signed artwork drawn by one of them, depicting the firehouse and the skyline.

One scrawled message said, "Gambino, thanks for helping me when I got stab!! [sic]" Tiso explained that last summer a gang member was stabbed on the corner and came to the firehouse for help.

"His stomach was cut, he was hurt bad, and Chris Blackwell and Tommy Gambino took care of him and they went in the ambulance with him and later they went to see him in the hospital," Tiso said. "On Sept. 12, the guy came in, saw Chris' picture, and he had tears in his eyes."

Hard to Let Go

But visitors are rare now, and unlike the firefighters at Manhattan houses still graced with shrines and celebrities, Rescue 3 members go about their routines uninterrupted.

Cool and Firefighter Timothy Wren, on his second day at Rescue 3, practiced tying an emergency harness around each other with 24 feet of nylon line, under the direction of Olson and Einsfeld.
The two newcomers cooked ravioli for the company members, who relished a few mouthfuls until the alarm sounded and they rushed to a fire on E. 223rd St. in Williamsbridge.

"Everyone seems to be working out great," said Firefighter Robert Knabbe, a 15-year veteran, with eight years at Rescue 3. "Everyone's fitting in ... but it's a great loss." He told of the difficulty in letting go.

The company decided never to erase the Sept. 10 "riding list," a chalkboard with the names of the on-duty officer and firefighters, because it was a roll call of the fallen. Someone covered the chalkboard with a piece of plexiglass to preserve the names.

"We finally had our Christmas party on Jan. 29," Knabbe said. "One of the young kids filling in for us took off the plexiglass and erased the board to write that day's names. When he realized what he did, he was so upset, I think he wanted to jump off a bridge.

"I felt really bad," Knabbe said, his voice trailing off at what seemed the end of a sad story.

"But later I told him that he probably did us a favor," Knabbe said. "We had to move on."

Editted for length
http://www.mostnewyork.com/2002-02-17/News_and_Views/City_Beat/a-141703.asp

[SeaBreeze]

Rescue Company 3 receives donation

The guys at Rescue 3 on 176th Street didn't think twice before heading downtown September 11th.

“My first thought was, where were my people,” reflected Ralph Tiso, Rescue 3 Captain.

His entire team on duty that day was killed, eight in all. Now a month and a half later, they are flooded with praise.

Here's a letter from Mrs. Blah's junior high English class from Georgia, with a big heart on it. It says “You are our heroes.”

Asked News 12 The Bronx's Ida Siegal “Do you feel like a hero?"

“No, we're doing our jobs,” replied Tiso.

However, Rescue 3, or Big Blue as they're called, has not received near the amount of financial donations Manhattan companies have.

Continued Tiso, “I guess we've been neglected only because of where we are. I don't take it personal, and the guys here don't take it personal.”

Then along came John Lafemina, a Manhattan restaurant owner. He opened his doors at The Peasant for dinner for a hundred dollars a head, all proceeds to benefit Big Blue.

"100 percent of the proceeds went to the fire department. Even waiters donated their salaries. We raised $25,000," said Lafemina.

A generous donation said Rescue 3, but not enough for the 20 children now missing a parent. These firefighters are missing a part of their soul

Reflected Tiso, “Sure there's pride, but if I could do it all over again and change history, I would.”

Lafemina says so many people showed up for dinner that night, he had to turn some away. Some of them who were turned away donated the $100. The firefighters said knowing that makes it a little better.

Rescue 3 is still accepting donations. If you'd like to contribute something to the families of victims, you can call the firehouse at (718) 430-0233.


http://www.news12.com/CDA/Articles/Transcript/0,2051,13-13-23900-25,00.html

[SeaBreeze]

On March 8th from 9-10 pm on the Discovery Channel.

NEW YORK FIREFIGHTERS. This special will tell the personal stories of New York's bravest in the aftermath of the worst moment in their history. The Discovery Channel was invited to spend time with the firefighters of Rescue 3 in the Bronx — a station that saw eight members die at the World Trade Center. NEW YORK FIREFIGHTERS allows the firefighters, spouses and children to provide their personal insights to paint a new portrait of New York's newest heroes and how they are able to forge ahead in spite of their incomprehensible tragedy.

[SeaBreeze]

Bronx firefighters to get new truck

02/03/02

Some Bronx firefighters are still recovering from the losses they suffered on 9/11. Rescue 3 in the Tremont section lost eight men, and one of their trucks had been severely damaged. And although, they can't bring their men back, a new truck could soon be on the way. News 12's Carolina Tarazona has the story.

These are the names and faces of eight Bronx heroes who died on September 11th. They were all from rescue three firehouse in Tremont. Their glossy fire truck still shows battle scars from its stay at Ground Zero. One that brings back bitter-sweet memories.

Lt. Jerry Murtha said, "this one was damaged but it can still go and being that there was such devastation to the New York City Fire Department, they decided to keep this one in service as long as they possibly could."

This Bronx firehouse, along with many other firehouses that responded to the trade towers, are now on a waiting list for a new truck. The list is long, but they say the gear is not as important as the ongoing support from Bronxites.

Mike Davis said, "even the community of the Bronx, the local schools, the politicians, they're just people have paid us tremendous respect, in that regard and really helped us out."

This help not only came from people here in the Bronx, but communities nationwide.

Mike Morrisey said, "it's been hard, a lot of people came out and showed their support, from all over the country, Kansas City, Texas, Little Momentos, it's nice knowing that people are behind you."

Rescue three firefighters say even though the new equipment will be helpful, the most important thing to them is remembering those eight men who perished on September 11th. Reporting from Tremont in the central section of the Bronx, Carolina Tarazona, News 12.


http://www.news12.com/CDA/Articles/...2840-25,00.html

[SeaBreeze]

TELEVISION REVIEW; Firefighters share lives post 9/11

Copyright 2002 Boston Herald Inc.
The Boston Herald...03/06/2002

By Jonathan Bloom

"New York Firefighters: The Brotherhood of September 11."

Friday at 9 p.m. on the Discovery Channel.

Three and a half stars (out of four)

A total of 343 New York firefighters died on Sept. 11. Eight came from Rescue 3 in the Bronx. The Discovery Channel's "New York Firefighters: The Brotherhood of September 11" tells their story and those of the firefighters who survived.

The hourlong documentary, which airs Friday at 9 p.m., focuses on life in the Bronx firehouse after Sept. 11. It is tasteful and informative in showing how these firefighters live while coping with extraordinary loss.

The surviving members of the firehouse opened up their lives to the Discovery Channel less than a month after the attacks.

The program does a nice job reminding viewers of the firefighters' heroism without being too heavy-handed. Narrator Stockard Channing ("The West Wing") sticks to the facts, noting how New York firefighters may have saved up to 25,000 people that day.

The special allows victims' families and fellow firefighters to explain their losses, yet is sensitive when it needs to be. The thing "Firefighters" does best is stay out of the way, letting loved ones do the talking. Even if the conversations seem slightly staged, families and firefighters share generously.

As the firefighters explain, those 343 individuals likely knew they would never return from the World Trade Center but went in anyway. There were lives to save. It's nice to see the Discovery Channel enlighten viewers about how humans, not wild animals, behave in dangerous situations.

In the most moving moments, families visit the station to clean out the lockers of their lost ones. One 13-year-old plans to follow in his father's footsteps. Another son recalls the last thing his father said to him, a reminder about what a dangerous job he had. Touchingly, two daughters try on their dad's big, flourescent coat.

"Firefighters" is adept at picking up subtleties, such as the Plexiglas board listing the men on duty Sept. 11 that hasn't been wiped clean.

The show does stray off-course in telling of the escape of a few firefighters from Ladder 6, along with Port Authority officers and one civilian, but their story is riveting.

Appropriately, the documentary ends on a somber note.

When the show was edited, the bodies of only 138 of the 343 dead firefighters had been recovered. Only two of the eight lost from Rescue 3 had been laid to rest.




http://webpublisher.lexisnexis.com/index.asp?layout=story&gid=1990000599&cid=110003011&did=4593-SN00-010F-C4M9-00000-00

[Neil]

RESCUE 3 BIG BLUE PATCH

[Neil]

To All My Quilting Friends,

I know all of us are grieving and in shock ever since the attack of Sept. 11th. I lost someone very close to me and my family that day.

32 year old firefighter, Tommy Foley from Rescue 3, answered the call that day. He was just going off duty when the alarm came in, but he jumped back on the truck, along with his brother firefighters. And they never came back.

They are all true heroes.

The Foley family is the family that, each year since 1997, have sponsored a golf tournament in my deceased son's name. $25,000 has been raised in Bobby Rowell's name, with the money going to Canine Companions for Independence. The Foley's are the most giving and generous family I've ever known. Their deep faith is helping them through all of this, along with the love of their family and friends.

Maybe you too have lost someone you know and love. Well there is something we, as quilter's, can do. Something personal and lasting. My quilting teacher and great friend, AnnaMarie Tucker had a great idea. She wants to set up something she calls "Adopt A Firehouse." This is how it would work. It is starting with us and with one firehouse at a time.

Our group is adopting Rescue 3, Tommy Foley's firehouse. We want to make lap size quilts for each firefighter that was lost (8), and for each firefighter that survived (21). Because, as AnnaMarie says, the survivors are suffering too. One of the firefighters from Rescue 3 left behind four children under the age of six. So we would like to add four baby quilts as part of our gift. Our goal is to have this done by the end of April, and the quilts will be delivered in person to the firefighters. The Foley's will be hosting a get together in the summer for all the surviving firefighters of Rescue 3, and we are invited to present the finished quilts to them at that time.

If any of you, my talented quilting friends, would like to be a part of Rescue 3 "Adopt A Firehouse," please email or call to let me know, and I'll add your name to the list and give you all the particulars.

Or, if any of you would like to start your own group, adopting your own firehouse, email or call me and I'll give you another firehouse. My nephew is a Deputy Chief for the FDNY, and he is compiling a list for me of all the firehouses that lost men.

Another thing that can be done is to spread the word. Contact your local guilds, quilt shops, and other quilting friends. And then ask them to spread the word to all their friends and guilds. Ask a quilt shop to put it on their web site. I've already asked Quilter's Attic in Pine Bush to put it on their web page, and they said, absolutely. I am going to have a flyer made and I can mail them to anyone who wants to leave them at quilt shops, guilds, etc.

I know you'll feel great participating in this worthwhile cause.

Thanks,
Let's Roll

Colleen Rowell
25 Lorraine Road
Island Park, NY 11558
1-516-432-2951
quiltcar@aol.com

[SeaBreeze]

Firefighters tell the story of Rescue 3

Of the 343 firefighters who died at the World Trade Center in September, only 138 have been found. New York Firefighters: The Brotherhood of September 11 (9 tonight, Discovery Channel) is a thoughtful, intimate look at one station that lost an entire crew and at the colleagues and family members they left behind.

Rescue 3, located in the South Bronx, is one of five elite rescue companies in the New York City Fire Department that are dispatched without ladders or water about 50 times a week. Armed instead with tools and skills specifically geared for dealing with collapsed buildings and other such disasters, the men of Rescue 3 left the station house at 8:45 a.m. Sept. 11. They never returned.

Today, a Plexiglas board lists the names of the eight on duty that fateful morning: Hickey, Meisenheimer, Blackwell, Regan, Spor, Gambino, Foley and Schrang. The documentary, which includes exclusive disaster footage, is narrated by actress Stockard Channing. But the primary voices in the hour are those of men such as Jerry Murtha, Mickey Conboy and Nick Giordano, who worked with the fallen eight for years. In a job that requires them to live like extended family, they have coped with pain and loss in the aftermath and now seek inspiration in, among other places, the children left behind.

Ryan Blackwell, 13, who helped clean out his dead father's locker, wants to be a firefighter someday. "He was a guy who sacrificed his life for anybody else's life ... like any of the guys here at the Rescue."

Staff writer Nancy McAlister can be reached at (904) 359-4370 or via e-mail at nmcalister@jacksonville. com.



http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/enmcalister/

[Neil]

"REMEMBER THEM"
CAPTAIN BRIAN HICKEY FDNY RESCUE 4 WAS WORKING WITH FDNY RESCUE 3 ON 9-11-01

[Neil]

FDNY RESCUE 3 HONORED WORCESTER RIDERS TO COLORADO
DURING MONTH OF SEPTEMBER 2000.
"WORCESTER REMEMBERS"
WE PRAY FOR OUR BROTHERS OF FDNY RESCUE 3 "BIG BLUE"

[SeaBreeze]

.

[SeaBreeze]

The Discovery Channel's biographies of the fallen firefighters from Rescue 3.

Biographies (http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/firefighters/bios/bios.html)

[SeaBreeze]

FIREMAN: I PULLED KNIFE ON FOTOG IN DEAD PAL'S GEAR

By LAURA ITALIANO


May 2, 2002 --

In riveting court testimony yesterday, a New York City firefighter described pulling his rescue knife on a free-lance photographer caught sneaking around Ground Zero in allegedly stolen gear.
It was 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 11, just three hours after the towers had collapsed.

Stephen Ferry, 41, who says he's a former White House correspondent, was discovered wearing a red Rescue Co. 3 hard hat, a FDNY-issued jumpsuit and work boots described in a criminal complaint as those of a firefighter dead in the collapse.

The man with the knife, firefighter Doug Hantusch, was from Rescue Co. 3 as well.

At a pretrial hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court yesterday, Hantusch described how, as he happened on Ferry, he was desperate to find any of the eight missing members of his company.

"Stan!" Hantusch testified to shouting, mistaking the alleged intruder for a colleague. Ferry kept going, Hantusch remembered, so he gave chase to question the familiarly dressed stranger.

"I said, ‘Who are you?' " Hantusch testified. "He said, ‘Um, I'm a firefighter.' "

Hantusch remembered snarling back, "Listen. You have Rescue 3 gear on, and I'm from Rescue 3, and I don't know you."

When Hantusch demanded Ferry give the gear back, Ferry wouldn't. And that's when Hantusch, enraged, pulled his knife.

"I told him, ‘Take the gear off, or I'll cut it off you.' "

No blood was shed. A fire marshal happened to be nearby, and assisted in arresting Ferry.

"It was a tough day, was it not, Sept. 11?" Hantusch was asked by defense lawyer Jack Litman.

"I think that was obvious," Hantusch answered.

Police arrested Ferry again two days later, when he returned to the scene.

He is charged with criminal impersonation, petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, but insists a firefighter gave him the gear.


http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/46994.htm

[Chris]

Firefighter Doug Hantusch, it must have been gut-wrenching to see a stranger where you hoped to see a brother. My thoughts are with you as you withstand the ordeal of this trial.

[Chris]

9 - 11 Photographer Gives Up Rights
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 7:36 a.m. ET


NEW YORK (AP) -- A freelance photographer who posed as a firefighter during the attack on the World Trade Center has agreed to surrender rights to film he shot of the devastation.

Steven Ferry, 41, also pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a forged instrument -- a fake driver's license that he had when he was arrested. He was wearing Fire Department coveralls and boots and a Rescue 3 hardhat.

Under a plea deal, Ferry is required to relinquish to the Library of Congress all rights to all photos on about 20 rolls of film of the destruction.

State Supreme Court Justice Leslie Crocker Snyder promised Ferry a sentence of 1,200 hours of community service and five years probation. Ferry could have been sentenced to up to seven years in prison.

Ferry was arrested Sept. 13 after he was spotted by several firefighters who had seen him at ground zero on Sept. 11.

Police said Ferry admitted he had taken the clothing without permission.

[Chris]

Adopt-a-Firehouse Quilt

More info on this project can be found at http://fallenbrothers.com/community/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2346

[SeaBreeze]

9/11 ONE YEAR LATER;
Jerry Murtha; New Faces All Around

Copyright 2002 Newsday, Inc.
Newsday (New York, NY)...09/11/2002

Interviews By Staff Writers Stephanie McCrummen And Indrani Sen

Jerry Murtha, 49, of Farmingdale. Lieutenant in Rescue 3 in the Bronx and drummer in the New York City Fire Department band. Eight men were lost from his firehouse.

It's still going on. Like yesterday, I went to work, and they DNA'ed one of the rescue workers from Rescue 3.

There are guys in the band that probably played at 300 funerals. I went to as many as I could, and there are still funerals. There's actually one tomorrow. It just keeps going on and on.

It's been like a blur. The first few months I was never off, and if I did get off and there was a funeral, I'd play there. Probably there were 60 of them I played at, I'd say, which, you know what, doesn't seem like a lot, and that's pretty crazy.

Even now, if you go to a funeral, all of a sudden it just rushes back again. You get the tears in your eyes, you get that bad feeling again. It just never seems to go, you know. We know that it will never go back to normal. I still don't know what to say.

Right now, at the firehouse, the fun isn't the same. We used to laugh. Now you go in and you see the pictures of all the guys. And they're not even sad pictures. They're happy pictures - but still. It's all in your mind.

We basically have 25 guys in the firehouse so we lost a third of the firefighters. Now in Rescue 3 we have 17 new guys. We had several retire, a few got promoted. It's a whole new firehouse. It's all so different. Everything is so different. For me.

It makes me appreciate my family more, it's made me reevaluate, maybe, like is it time for me to retire. You just appreciate being alive. You know, a lot of things go through your mind. It's still very tough. It's good to talk about it. We have therapy at the firehouse: Five or six of us get together, and we talk. Some guys retired and have that void there, and don't have anyone to relate to.

I'm going to be 50 years old in December, so I'm not as young as I used to be. My family would like me to retire but I still have that desire to go to work. I love being around the guys. I like the excitement. There's a sense of satisfaction when you do save somebody, when you do make a difference. It's tough to walk away from, because it's been your whole life. So right now, I don't know.

There's a lot of people that are torn on what to do right now. You just sit around and think, I don't know. It's a whole new firehouse. All new faces. Maybe it's time for me to go, too.




http://webpublisher.lexisnexis.com/index.asp?layout=story&gid=1990000599&cid=110003011&did=46R9-YS40-009T-Y4PM-00000-00

[SeaBreeze]

Barnsley Gardens and Southern Company Sponsor Fall Festival And Golf Tournament to Benefit FDNY Rescue 3 Family Fund


ADAIRSVILLE, Ga., Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Barnsley Gardens and Southern Company are partnering for a weekend of activities Oct. 5-7 at world-renowned Barnsley Gardens to celebrate fall and raise funds for the FDNY Rescue 3 Family Fund. The Fall Festival and golf tournament will provide financial support to children and families of those left behind from Sept. 11, 2001.

Southern Company informally adopted FDNY Rescue 3 due to an employee relation and due to Rescue 3's lack of a neighborhood in the Bronx. Rescue 3 lost nine firefighters in the Sept. 11 tragedy.

"Southern Company wanted to do something special for these great firefighters that we've come to know so well, so we have pooled our resources and partnered with Barnsley Gardens to create a fun-filled weekend that will help a good cause," said Brenda Miles, Southern Company Conference Services event planner and main organizer of the fundraiser.

"Everyone at Barnsley Gardens is so very excited to be partnering with Southern Company for this wonderful cause. We are very honored to be able to lend a helping hand and support these families during their time of need," said Nancy Wilkerson, Director of Sales and Marketing at Barnsley Gardens.


The weekend activities include:

Fall Festival, Saturday, Oct. 5, noon-4 p.m.

Have a brat and a stein, it is Fall Festival time! Enjoy the German
tradition of honoring spicy sausages and the crops that yield thy beer.

There will be German beers and wines, as well as arts & crafts, live bands, silent auction and much, much more. Tickets are $50.00 (plus applicable sales tax) and include all food and drink.

Golf tournament, Monday, Oct. 7

Total of 144 golfers (36 foursomes); breakfast, box lunch and awards reception included. Prizes awarded. Entry fee is $700 per foursome, or $175 per person (plus applicable sales tax).

Several firefighters from FDNY Rescue 3 will be on hand to show their appreciation and to participate in both activities.

Barnsley Gardens is located off I-75 North in Adairsville, GA. Take I-75N to exit 306. Turn left off the exit. Travel about 2.5 miles on Highway 140. Turn left at Hall Station Road and travel south about 5.5 miles. Hall Station Road will intersect Barnsley Gardens Road. At intersection, turn right onto Barnsley Gardens Road. Travel 2.2 miles to entrance of the resort. The resort is located about one hour from Atlanta.

Barnsley Gardens is located 60 miles northwest of Atlanta, Georgia and 52 miles from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Barnsley Gardens features 33 guest cottages, each with its own garden, that house 70 individually decorated suites. Recreational facilities include an 18-hole championship golf course designed by Jim Fazio, two clay tennis courts, a formal billiards room, fishing, walking trails, horseback riding, clay shooting course, bird
watching, a full-service spa with fitness center, and Olympic-size swimming pool. Reservations can be made by calling (770) 773-7480 or toll-free (877) 773-2447.

With 4 million customers and nearly 37,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier super-regional energy company in the Southeast and a leading U.S. producer of electricity. Southern Company owns electric utilities in four states, a fast-growing competitive generation company, an energy services business and a competitive retail natural gas business, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and retail electric prices that are 15 percent below the national average. Southern Company has been named No. 1 on Fortune
magazine's 2002 "America's Most Admired Companies" list in the Electric and Gas Utility industry. Southern Company has more than 500,000 shareholders, making its common stock one of the most widely held in the United States.

Visit the Southern Company Web site at http://www.southerncompany.com .




http://www.energy-markets.com/headlines/10-01-2002/0001810513.htm

[SeaBreeze]

Bond of friendship forged with 9/11 gift
Big Bear students keep in touch with FDNY's Big Blue rescue

By Selicia Kennedy-Ross, Staff Writer

Four years ago, the students at Big Bear Middle School in Big Bear Lake had only a distant idea of the damage done by the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Like the rest of the nation, they watched the images on television and mourned the tragedy that affected the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon, near Washington, D.C.

They knew that 2,792 people died because of the attacks on the World Trade Center. But it was the deaths of eight firefighters that brought it home.

In 2001, the students raised $12,500 selling magazines to refurbish the school's aging gym floor. But after Sept. 11, the entire student body voted unanimously to use the money toward something more valuable the families of the victims.

The students began searching for a small cause to help in 2002, said the school's then-student government adviser Sue Reynolds, rather than having their gift lost in a large organization.

The answer appeared through Robert "Butch" Cobb, chief of Jersey City Fire Department and John Salka, a battalion chief with FDNY's 18th Battalion in the Bronx. The two firefighters were traveling across the country to speak about Sept. 11.

Big Bear Lake Fire Department officials put the school in contact with Cobb and Salka. The pair told them about Rescue 3, also known as "Big Blue," a small urban search and rescue fire station in the Bronx, which lost eight of its firefighters on duty Sept. 11. Between the eight heroes were a total of 22 fatherless children.

Upon hearing about Rescue 3, the students knew this was their cause. The money would go to the bereaved children of Rescue 3.

"The whole school did this. They knew that there were kids their age who had been very affected by this, and they wanted to help," said Reynolds, 47, a teacher at Big Bear Middle School. "They've stayed in contact with the guys, and we've developed a real relationship that's greatly affected their lives."

Four years have passed and the relationship between Big Bear and Big Blue has continued, bolstered by the exchange of correspondence and gifts.

Gifts and letters from Big Bear Middle School adorn the Bronx fire station. The school's gym wall has a mural that lists the names of all eight Rescue 3 firefighters who died Sept. 11. They are Chris Blackwell, Tom Foley, Tom Gambino, Ray Meisenheimer, Don Regan, Gerry Schrang, Joseph Spor and Capt. Brian Hickey.

Today, the original middle school students are seniors and juniors in high school. Many have maintained a relationship with Salka, Cobb and Rescue 3.

The relationship with the school has been "really wonderful," said 47-year-old Salka, a former member of Rescue 3.

"We've been back twice since," Salka said. "A year later in 2003, and then the following year for the mural, and they came to visit us. It's been a great relationship."

Matthew Vecchio was 13, a seventh-grader, when the middle school students made the donation to the firefighters' families. Today, he is a junior at Big Bear High.

"It really created a nice bond that is still there," said Matthew, 17. "The whole event, especially the mural, really brought the school together as a family. It was very emotional."

In April, a party of 50, including five of the original students and current students and their families, traveled to New York to visit Rescue 3, where the firefighters prepared lunch for them.

Heather Fipps was only 12 when the students began their relationship with Rescue 3. Now a junior at Big Bear High School, the 16-year-old traveled to New York to meet the firefighters at Rescue 3.

"It was really amazing," she said of the students' visit to the station. "It was really touching to see they are real people. Anyone can send a check to an organization or a company, or look at so many names on a wall, but it's a different experience to meet the people 9/11 really did affect. It takes it to a whole other personal level and brings home the reality of what really happened.

"It makes you appreciate what you have and what you are able to give," she added.

The firefighters of Rescue 3 were also moved by the long-awaited meeting.

"It was kind of like meeting an old friend," firefighter Robert Knabbe said. "The outpouring of love and support shown to members of this company after 9/11 was something to hold onto.

"Meeting the kids it felt like a homecoming," he said.

The school gym will get its long-awaited new floor soon through district modernization funds and money raised by the community.

Touched by the students' unselfish gesture, the local Board of Realtors raised money to replace their $12,500 and more about $15,000. And Dunlop Tire company donated a floor covering to the school.

The students said they have no regrets. As far as they're concerned, what they gained was much more valuable.

Kelly Reynolds was just 14 and student body president when her school donated the money to the children. Now 17, the Big Bear High senior recalled the visit to the station as "an amazing experience."

"I've learned that everything is so much bigger than you," Kelly said. "Just one little tiny idea can affect someone far away, and anyone can have a huge influence on someone's life."


http://www.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,203%257E21481%257E3049642,00.html