New Rope System Introduced by FDNY in the Wake of Two Deaths

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The New York Sun

Nine months after two of New York’s Bravest jumped to their deaths from a Bronx blaze, city fire officials yesterday unveiled a lightweight rope system to help firefighters escape the direst conditions.


Training with the new devices began yesterday at the city’s academy on Randalls Island, and officials said they hope to equip the department’s 11,500 firefighters and officers by March.


“I think we came up with the best equipment that we can give a firefighter today,” the department’s chief of training, Thomas Galvin, said. “At the end of the day, what we’re providing is a last-resort escape device.”


The widow of Lieutenant Curtis Meyran, Jeanette Meyran, who last week filed a wrongful death suit against the city, showed up uninvited yesterday to see the new system. She referred to the Fire Department as an “adversary” but praised the safety devices it designed.


“We have been pushing for this for quite a long time,” Ms. Meyran said. “I’m glad to see that my husband has a legacy and that his death definitely made a difference.”


Meyran did not have a rope when he and firefighter John Bellew died on January 23. The firefighters were battling a blaze on the top floor of a Bronx apartment building when fire consumed the room they were in, forcing them and four other firefighters to leap from the building. The others sustained serious injuries but survived.


Ropes have not been issued to individual firefighters since 2000,when officials determined they were too cumbersome.


After the Bronx fire in January, the department put $11 million into emergency funding toward the rope project.


The new system includes a harness, a descent-control device, a steel hook, and a lightweight,50-foot Technora rope that is heat resistant and bulletproof.


The equipment is stored in a custom designed pouch that allows the firefighter to deploy the rope and exit through a window within seven to 10 seconds, a developer of the system, Lieutenant Tim Kelly, said. The ropes previously in use could take as long as 40 seconds to deploy safely, another of the project’s developers, Captain Thomas Dolan, said.


“The old system was good. This is much better,” Lieutenant Kelly said.


Bronx firefighter Kevin Whalen, 35, said that although the system is a significant improvement, it was late in coming.


“Two guys had to die for us to get ropes that we should have had from day one,” Mr. Whalen said. “This is the right step, but it should have come a lot sooner.”


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