Jury Awards $183 Million To NYC Firefighters Involved In 'Black Sunday' Fire
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A jury has awarded $183 million to the families of five New York Fire Department firefighters who died or were injured from the events of 2005 "Black Sunday" fire.
WCBS 880's Alex Silverman reports it was one of the darkest days in FDNY's history as six firefighters were trapped in an illegally sub-divided tenement in the Bronx and were forced to jump.
The department took away their ropes five years earlier.
"Both the former fire commissioner and the deputy chief who did the investigation testified on cross examination. Had the six firefighters had the available use of those ropes at the time, no one would have died that day," Vito Cannavo, lawyer for the families, told WCBS 880.
Two firefighters died after jumping – Lt. Curtis Meyran and Firefighter John Bellew. Firefighter Joseph DiBernardo died six years later from his injuries. Firefighters Gene Stolowski, Brendan Cawley and Jeff Cool suffered life-altering injuries.
Cannavo said the jury assigned 80 percent of the liability to the city.
The Law Department said they're considering appealing the verdict.
"The City has always viewed this incident as a tragedy for the firefighters and their families, but we believe that the jury's verdict does not fairly apportion liability in view of compelling evidence that established that the landlord's numerous building code violations were directly responsible for this horrible event," they told CBS2 in a statement. "We will review the record and evaluate our legal options."
