FDNY Line of Duty Deaths
February 8, 1976 - LODDs
FDNY. Queens, New York
Lieutenant Joseph M. Beetle - Ladder 143
Fireman Thomas J. Earl - Engine 285
Fireman Stanley Skinner - Ladder 143
Lieutenant Beetle, Fireman Skinner, and Fireman Earl died as a result of injuries they sustained during a collapse.
RIP. Never forget.
NY Times
3 firemen killed at Queens Blaze
By Peter KihssFeb. 9, 1976
Three firemen were killed early yesterday when a roof and an air‐conditioning unit collapsed on them while theywere fighting a blaze in a fastfood restaurant in Richmond Hill, Queens.
The thundering barrage of burning timbers and toppling metal crushed the three men immediately beneath it and half‐buried others. Firemen rushed into the one‐story ing from the street to pull out their comrades, but one official] said the dead men “didn't have a chance.”
The cause of the blaze, which injured six other firemen, was undetermined, but Commissioner John T. O'Hagan said later that there had been “a series of suspicious fires” in the area recently.
Some Arson Reported
Assemblyman Alfred A. DelliBovi of Richmond Hill said that there had been 15 fires since Dec. 8 in the business district and 12 on corner properties, and that some had been “definitely arson.”
Of yesterday's dead, Fireman Thomas Earl, 41, of Engine Company 285 in Ozone Park, had been the nozzle man, playing water from a hose on the flames inside the Jolly Jiant Restaurant at 119‐25 Liberty Avenue.
Lieut. Joseph Beetle, 53, had been directing his men from Ladder 143, Richmond Hill, trying to discover and knock out pockets of fire with pick axes. Fireman Stanley H. Skinner, 54, was one of the men from his truck.
Commissioner O'Hagan solemnly told newsmen that the deaths were “associated with the problem of identifying where and how serious” the fire pockets were. He said decisions on pulling burning areas apart had to be made “dozens of times a day” in fighting fires throughout the city, and he indicated doubt that the deaths could have been averted.
The deaths brought the loss of firemen this year to five, only one fewer than were killed in all of last year.
On Jan. 7. Fireman Charles R. Sanchez died when he was one of nine firemen who were thrown into a supermarket basement in Brooklyn after the floor collapsed. On Jan. 24, Firemen Joseph Kenavan was injured fatally when a motorist ran into him and four other firemen coping with a burning car in Brooklyn.
Minutes After Alarm
Yesterday's fire brought out 90 to 100 men and officers with 21 pieces of equipment, according to the Fire Department. It said the first engine—No. 308 from two blocks away at 107‐12 Lefferts Boulevard, Richmond Hill—had arrived within three to five minutes after a box alarm was pulled at 1:17 A.M. at Liberty Avenue, and 117th Street.
The fire appeared to be burening in the rear of the Jolly Jiant, on the northwest corner of Liberty Avenue and 120th, Street, or in Steer‐Rite Meats, the adjoining butcher shop at 119‐23, and to be spreading to Ed's Superette, at 119‐21. AIL three buildings are one‐story brick structures, typical of the area.
The first alarm brought two engine and two ladder companies, and a third engine responded at 1:21 A.M., according to dispatcher times. At 1:31 A.M., an extra engine and an extra truck were called. A second alarm went in at 1:40 and a third one at 1:52.
Men moved in from both the front and side as the fire seemed to be moving forward. Then suddenly the side and roof of the restaurant caved in, trapping the firefighters. Those killed “didn't have a chance,” according to a department spokesman.
Some Men Injured
Lieutenant Beetle and Fireman Earl were pronounced dead at the scene, and Fireman Skinner was dead on arrival at Jamaica Hospital. Fireman Frank Krasinski, 45, who suffered second‐degree burns, was listed in satisfactory condition at the hospital last night.
Treated at Jamaica Hospital for cuts and bruises and then released were Firemen Robert Thompson, 48; Roy Gordon, 27; Robert Babstock, 35, and Edward Burke, 41. Fireman Fred Shaughnessy was treated at the City Hospital Center at Elmhurst for shock and then released.
James Love, acting borough fire commander, declared the blaze under control at 3:34 A.M. Commissioner O'Hagan had arrived at about 3 A.M. and had ordered an immediate investigation under Assistant Chief Marshal John Barracoto on the cause of the fire.
In an afternoon news conference at Engine Company 241, 6630 Third Avenue, Brooklyn, Commissioner O'Hagan said that Chief Fire Marshal Michael O'Connor had a special task force working in the Richmond Hill‐Ozone Park area seeking leads on possible arsonists.
Edward Hart, a co‐owner of the burned grocery, which still had its window stocked with beer, vegetable cans and ketchup bottles, said his loss could approximate $75,000.
Signs on Sidewalk
The meat market was thoroughly destroyed and scorched. The restaurant was filled with fallen beams and braces, and its “Jolly Jiant” signs lay on the sidewalk.
Down the block, toward the Liberty Avenue El structure, Karp's luncheonette and ice cream parlor, at 119‐07 Liberty Avenue, bore a sign that it was “closed because of fire.” Firemen said that blaze occurred a week ago Friday.
While daytime crews were going through the sodden wreckage from yesterday's fire, Battalion Chief Edwin Jennings, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, told newsment the Fire Department was encountering an upsurge of multiple‐alarm fires. Units are responding with one man short because of budget cuts, he said —four men to an engine instead of five, five men to a ladder instead of six.
Chief Jennings asserted that the department had lost 3,000 men and 450 officers through layoffs and attrition since 1970 high of 11,863 men and 2,700 officers, He said 36 firefighting units had been disbanded, leading to “delayed response and delay in aggressive attack.”
In 38 days this year, Chief Jennings said, the city has had 113 serious multiple‐alarm fires, double the normal rate, with 49 civilians killed—a rate, he said, that could lead to more than double last year's 244 fire deaths.
Chief Jennings said he had asked the City Council to hold public hearings and to call officers to testify with immunity under subpoena in an effort to “restore adequate protection before the city burns down.”
A continued fire toll, he asserted, could cost the city a loss of $30 million to $60 million in real‐estate taxes on burned properties this year. This might be cut if firemen were rehired, he said.
Michael T. Maye, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, said yesterday's deaths reaffirmed his call for grand‐jury investigations into the manpower cuts that he contended were delaying response time and keeping units shorthanded. Mr. Maye had urged such inquiries after the fire that killed 10 persons last Wednesday at 311 West 94th Street.
At two firehouses in Queens, where men talked yesterday in subdued tones about the team members they had lost, morale, appeared to have been shaken. One veteran said: “We're fighting fires now with men in their 30's. 40's, 50's.”
In the relatively quiet Richmond Hill.Ozone Park area, another said that Ladder 143, at 101.02 Jamaica Avenue, to which Lieutenant Beetle and Fireman Skinner belonged, had made 3,000 runs last year, working 1,600 fires.
Not far from yesterday's fire, six persons died Dec. 7 when fire struck a row of three‐story frame houses at Atlantic Avenue and 115th Street. The cause was termed suspicious.
On Nov. 20 a fire in a clothing store at 159‐02 Jamaica Avenue killed Fire Capt. Raymond Koehler and fatally injured Fireman John J. Flanagan, who died Dec. R. A private inspector of burglar alarms and fire alarms was charged with setting that blaze.
In a statement, Mayor Beanie said that all New Yorkers had been shocked and saddened by “the loss of three heroic firefighters.” He added: “This tragedy once again demonstrates the dangers our firemen are exposed to in carrying out their vital day‐to‐day task of protecting our citizens.”
FF Earl USMC Korean War
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