ENGINE 15/LADDER 18/BATTALION 4 (ENGINE 17 DISBANDED) FIREHOUSE 25 PITT STREET LOWER EAST SIDE, MANHATTAN DIVISION 1, BATTALION 4 "FORT PITT"
ENGINE 18 LODD
FIREFIGHTER MARTIN R. CELIC LADDER 18 - DETAILED ENGINE 15 JULY 10, 1977 (CONTINUED)
MONSIGNOR FARRELL H.S. HALL OF FAME
Martin Celic, Class of 1970
After graduating from Farrell in 1970, Marty attended John Jay College and joined the New York City Fire Department shortly after. He was then assigned to Ladder Company 18 in Manhattan's lower east side. Marty, along with many members of the FDNY at that time, was laid off during the budget crisis of 1975. He was reappointed on Christmas Day 1976 and returned to Ladder 18.
On July 2, 1977 Marty, who was working in Ladder 15 for the day, responded to a fire in a warehouse. After Marty and his company entered the burning building, the arsonist, who had started the original fire, set an additional fire on the second floor, trapping Marty and the rest of the firemen in the blazing warehouse.
Blinded by thick smoke and with heavy equipment on his back, Marty attempted to escape, but missed the bucket of the tower ladder and fell 70 feet to the ground. He succumbed to his injuries eight days later on July 10, 1977 at the age of twenty-five.
For his bravery, Marty was posthumously awarded the Fire Department Medal of Valor, as well as the Medal of Supreme Sacrifice, and was honored as Fireman of the Year by the Crime Victims' Rights Organization.
His former company, Ladder 18, established the Martin Celic Scholarship Fund, which awards a yearly scholarship to a junior at Farrell who combines academic achievement with excellence in track. The Marty Celic Four-Mile Run is held annually in Clove Lakes Park to raise money for the fund.
https://monsignorfarrellalumni.org/marty-celic
Posted Aug 28, 2014
Roads closed for Saturday's annual Marty and Tom Celic Run in Clove Lakes Park
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The 38th annual Celic Run takes place in Clove Lakes Park Saturday morning, with road closures in West Brighton from approximately 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Clove Road, between Victory Boulevard and Forest Avenue, and Martling Avenue, from Clove Road to Slosson Avenue, will be closed to traffic.
The Celic Run -- the oldest road race on Staten Island -- was first organized to commemorate FDNY firefighter Martin Celic, who was killed in the line of duty in a fire in Manhattan in 1977, when he was 25 years old.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Celic's brother Thomas, 43, who worked for Marsh McLennan, died in Tower 1 at the World Trade Center, and the race was renamed.
The brothers, graduates of Monsignor Farrell High School, were passionate runners. Martin excelled in cross-country, the high jump and intermediate hurdles in high school; Thomas completed seven New York and Boston marathons.
Ephemeral New York
A garden rises where a fireman died by arson
July 6, 2020
In 1977—with city coffers empty, crime rising, and residents fleeing at historically high rates—more than 13,000 New York City buildings were intentionally set on fire.
One of these arson fires happened on July 2 at 358 East Eighth Street, an abandoned tenement between Avenues C and D. The blaze, set with diesel oil, broke out on the fifth floor at about 3:10 pm.
Firefighters from Engine 15 saw the smoke while heading back to their station house on Pitt Street after responding to a false alarm. They detoured to the burning tenement to take on the four-alarm blaze, according to the New York Daily News on July 7, 1977.
With the firefighters on the fifth floor, the arsonist allegedly came back and set a second fire on a lower floor, reported the Daily News. (At right, the six-story building in 1940)
“When the new outburst of flames surged upward, the firemen crawled to a window where Ladder Company 11 had extended its cherry picker,” stated the Daily News.
One fireman made it to the cherry picker; three were overcome by smoke inhalation and had to be rescued inside.
Firefighter Martin Celic, 25, a Staten Island native who was to be married later that year, tried to get in the cherry picker. He tripped and fell 70 feet to the sidewalk.
Celic spent a week at Bellevue with massive head injuries before dying on July 10, his fiancé at his bedside.
A 17-year-old was arrested for setting the fire; he allegedly told officials that he did it to prevent winos and junkies from getting inside the building. In 1978 he was ordered to stand trial for arson and murder.
In 1978, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter, admitting that he set the fire, according to the Daily News on July 7 of that year. He received 8-25 years.
This tragic story would be just a footnote of 1970s New York City history if not for the efforts of community members.
“Longtime neighborhood residents Ansley and Kelly Carnahan had begun gardening in the lot adjacent to the abandoned building in 1975,” states NYC Parks. “After the burnt-out building was condemned and torn down, the Carnahans and other local residents expanded their garden to the new lot.”
They named it the Firemen’s Garden (or Fireman’s Garden; it’s spelled both ways), “in honor of those who risk their lives daily in every borough and district,” continues NYC Parks. “Marty Celic’s family donated benches made of cedar and wrought iron.”
The garden became a nonprofit in 1989, then was transferred to the New York City Parks Department control in 1999. Shady, leafy, and with brick paths inside, it’s one of many firefighter tributes throughout the city.
For many New Yorkers, the Firemen’s Garden is a little off the beaten path. A “special ceremony is held in mid-July in remembrance of the sacrifices of all New York City firemen,” NYC Parks says, might be worth making the trek for.
https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/tag/martin-celic-firefighter/
ENGINE 18 LODD
FIREFIGHTER MARTIN R. CELIC LADDER 18 - DETAILED ENGINE 15 JULY 10, 1977 (CONTINUED)
MONSIGNOR FARRELL H.S. HALL OF FAME
Martin Celic, Class of 1970
After graduating from Farrell in 1970, Marty attended John Jay College and joined the New York City Fire Department shortly after. He was then assigned to Ladder Company 18 in Manhattan's lower east side. Marty, along with many members of the FDNY at that time, was laid off during the budget crisis of 1975. He was reappointed on Christmas Day 1976 and returned to Ladder 18.
On July 2, 1977 Marty, who was working in Ladder 15 for the day, responded to a fire in a warehouse. After Marty and his company entered the burning building, the arsonist, who had started the original fire, set an additional fire on the second floor, trapping Marty and the rest of the firemen in the blazing warehouse.
Blinded by thick smoke and with heavy equipment on his back, Marty attempted to escape, but missed the bucket of the tower ladder and fell 70 feet to the ground. He succumbed to his injuries eight days later on July 10, 1977 at the age of twenty-five.
For his bravery, Marty was posthumously awarded the Fire Department Medal of Valor, as well as the Medal of Supreme Sacrifice, and was honored as Fireman of the Year by the Crime Victims' Rights Organization.
His former company, Ladder 18, established the Martin Celic Scholarship Fund, which awards a yearly scholarship to a junior at Farrell who combines academic achievement with excellence in track. The Marty Celic Four-Mile Run is held annually in Clove Lakes Park to raise money for the fund.
https://monsignorfarrellalumni.org/marty-celic
Posted Aug 28, 2014
Roads closed for Saturday's annual Marty and Tom Celic Run in Clove Lakes Park
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The 38th annual Celic Run takes place in Clove Lakes Park Saturday morning, with road closures in West Brighton from approximately 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Clove Road, between Victory Boulevard and Forest Avenue, and Martling Avenue, from Clove Road to Slosson Avenue, will be closed to traffic.
The Celic Run -- the oldest road race on Staten Island -- was first organized to commemorate FDNY firefighter Martin Celic, who was killed in the line of duty in a fire in Manhattan in 1977, when he was 25 years old.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Celic's brother Thomas, 43, who worked for Marsh McLennan, died in Tower 1 at the World Trade Center, and the race was renamed.
The brothers, graduates of Monsignor Farrell High School, were passionate runners. Martin excelled in cross-country, the high jump and intermediate hurdles in high school; Thomas completed seven New York and Boston marathons.
Ephemeral New York
A garden rises where a fireman died by arson
July 6, 2020
In 1977—with city coffers empty, crime rising, and residents fleeing at historically high rates—more than 13,000 New York City buildings were intentionally set on fire.
One of these arson fires happened on July 2 at 358 East Eighth Street, an abandoned tenement between Avenues C and D. The blaze, set with diesel oil, broke out on the fifth floor at about 3:10 pm.
Firefighters from Engine 15 saw the smoke while heading back to their station house on Pitt Street after responding to a false alarm. They detoured to the burning tenement to take on the four-alarm blaze, according to the New York Daily News on July 7, 1977.
With the firefighters on the fifth floor, the arsonist allegedly came back and set a second fire on a lower floor, reported the Daily News. (At right, the six-story building in 1940)
“When the new outburst of flames surged upward, the firemen crawled to a window where Ladder Company 11 had extended its cherry picker,” stated the Daily News.
One fireman made it to the cherry picker; three were overcome by smoke inhalation and had to be rescued inside.
Firefighter Martin Celic, 25, a Staten Island native who was to be married later that year, tried to get in the cherry picker. He tripped and fell 70 feet to the sidewalk.
Celic spent a week at Bellevue with massive head injuries before dying on July 10, his fiancé at his bedside.
A 17-year-old was arrested for setting the fire; he allegedly told officials that he did it to prevent winos and junkies from getting inside the building. In 1978 he was ordered to stand trial for arson and murder.
In 1978, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter, admitting that he set the fire, according to the Daily News on July 7 of that year. He received 8-25 years.
This tragic story would be just a footnote of 1970s New York City history if not for the efforts of community members.
“Longtime neighborhood residents Ansley and Kelly Carnahan had begun gardening in the lot adjacent to the abandoned building in 1975,” states NYC Parks. “After the burnt-out building was condemned and torn down, the Carnahans and other local residents expanded their garden to the new lot.”
They named it the Firemen’s Garden (or Fireman’s Garden; it’s spelled both ways), “in honor of those who risk their lives daily in every borough and district,” continues NYC Parks. “Marty Celic’s family donated benches made of cedar and wrought iron.”
The garden became a nonprofit in 1989, then was transferred to the New York City Parks Department control in 1999. Shady, leafy, and with brick paths inside, it’s one of many firefighter tributes throughout the city.
For many New Yorkers, the Firemen’s Garden is a little off the beaten path. A “special ceremony is held in mid-July in remembrance of the sacrifices of all New York City firemen,” NYC Parks says, might be worth making the trek for.
https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/tag/martin-celic-firefighter/
