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AP - Radio updates about the water available to battle a blaze would have saved the two firefighters killed at the Deutsche Bank building a year ago, the city's fire union president says.
The Uniformed Firefighters Association is asking the Fire Department to require dispatchers to call incident commanders every five minutes about water-supply problems, and then alert firefighters in burning buildings by radio.
The radio signals would help firefighters decide whether to move to safer locations if they've been in a building too long without water, union President Stephen Cassidy said in a recent letter to Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta.
"Firefighters do not have a clock available to them," Cassidy wrote Scoppetta. "As a result, they often continue to operate in dangerous areas longer than they should, not realizing how much time has elapsed."
On Aug. 18, 2007, more than 100 firefighters went without water for close to an hour at the condemned Deutsche Bank building across from Ground Zero because the tower's standpipe had been cut. Firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino died after their oxygen supply ran out.
If the firefighters had been receiving radio updates about water problems a year ago, "I don't think this tragedy would have happened," Cassidy said.
The Fire Department is reviewing the union's proposal, FDNY spokesman Jim Long said Saturday.
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