Free Republic

'INSPIRING' VISIT & MEET WITH BRAVEST Sarah Palin yesterday made an unscheduled tour of a visitors center at Ground Zero dedicated to those who lost their lives in the 9/11 terror attacks. The Republican vice-presidential nominee nodded her head several times and said, "Oh, my goodness," while a retired firefighter showed her pictures of the burning World Trade Center and exhibits that highlighted the moments the hijacked planes struck each tower. PHOTOS: Palin In NYC - Day 3 Her tour guide was Lee Ielpi, whose son Jonathan, a firefighter, died at the World Trade Center. Palin told Ielpi, "My parents...

Go here to see the tribute to Freeper BCM - we will NEVER FORGET John!!! http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/539734/posts?page=343

WJACTV Johnstown (PA) reports: Shanksville, PA -- Firefighters said it was one of the largest fire companies in the country meeting one of the smallest Saturday night, when 1,000 motorcycles from New York City rolled into the Alleghenies with a steel beam from the World Trade Center in tow. New York firefighters made the 311-mile trek to Shanksville by bike to give the 2-ton 14-foot long beam to the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Company... Read the rest or view the video by clicking here. At 7:00 a.m. yesterday morning, the Fire Family Transport Foundation launched from Floyd Bennett Field on Long...

CAMP TAJI, Iraq, March 27, 2008 – On Sept. 11, 2001, Nicholas Pata was a volunteer firefighter in Rockland County, N.Y., who assisted rescue efforts after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in Manhattan. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus (left) presents a commander’s coin for excellence to Army Pfc. Nicholas Pata, a New York City native who serves as a radio-telephone operator for Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Multinational Division Baghdad, March 12, 2008. Photo by Staff Sgt. Christian Foster, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available....

LISTEN TO THE FAMOUS WORDS OF FIREMAN MIKE MORAN NOTE: the tune is Wearin' O' the Green....unfortunately, I cannot get the link below to work....at one time, I found the MP3 link in a radio station archives. If I can find that, I'll bring it in here LISTEN TO THE MP3 OF "THE BALLAD OF MIKE MORAN"

A Queens livery driver who had become something of a hero, after he took to a firehouse a baby girl that he said had been abandoned in his cab, was arrested on Saturday after his story unraveled, the police said. A man and a woman were also arrested.

Rudy Giuliani's plan to ride in a Miami-Dade firetruck in Sunday's Three Kings parade has outraged some firefighters who say the presidential candidate has ''lied'' about his 9/11 record because he did too little to equip and protect emergency workers. The controversy -- unwittingly set in motion by County Commissioner Rebeca Sosa -- has politically pitted firefighters against one another in Miami-Dade as well as in New York. To quiet the feud, the IAFF's local Miami-Dade chapter, 1403, will cover its numbers on the union-owned firetruck by draping it with an American flag. Giuliani's campaign said he will probably ride...

Holiday goodies from the Big Apple are here again. New York City firefighters drove the Christmas caravan 1500 miles. This is the third straight year the generous firefighters have collected toys and food and made a special delivery to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. These firefighters who endured 9-11, were among the first responders after Katrina. "This is my fifth time down. The last two times have been toys for the kids. And the first three times were supplies. And as long as they give it, we can get it down here," said fireman Gary Moore. New Yorkers are again more...

Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), antiinflammatory treatments often prescribed for asthma, may be beneficial in preventing respiratory illness, according to a new study. The research examined the effectiveness of ICS in preventing asthma and other respiratory illness due to inhalation exposures experienced by NYC firefighters after the World Trade Center (WTC) collapse. Two years post-collapse, those firefighters treated with ICS reported positive feedback. "Respiratory protection is often needed during disasters, but it is difficult to get it instantly, and many responders, without EMS or fire experience, have not been trained or fit-tested to wear equipment properly. Couple this with a disaster environment...

Little Green Footballs reported late in the day Friday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is still on his way to GROUND ZERO Monday. (I personally never bought the partial transcript from 60 Minutes anyway...) We're rolling out the wagon to "greet" him. Liberty St. and Broadway 9am - I will be there.

God bless these heroes and all of the men and women fighting to keep America safe. May the families of those who are lost be comforted.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Once again, the city will pause for four moments of silence to mark the attacks that killed thousands. Family members will lay flowers by the fallen twin towers, and the names of more than 2,700 victims will be read. But much will be different on the sixth anniversary of Sept. 11, after tense arguments about where to hold the ceremony, if a presidential candidate should be allowed to speak and whether focus on the commemoration has become excessive. Firefighters, first responders and construction workers who helped rescue New Yorkers and many who later recovered victims' bodies...

More than a week after two New York City firefighters died in a smoky fire at the former Deutsche Bank building, city officials relieved three senior fire officers of their posts yesterday, asserting they had failed to inspect the building or to draw up a specific plan on how to fight a fire inside the contaminated tower. At a City Hall news conference yesterday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said the local firehouse had not performed any of the required inspections of the building on the edge of ground zero since 2006, even though the 41-story building, damaged in the Sept....

Supporting a candidate simply because you believe he can defeat another candidate is a hollow endorsement. But the greater political miscalculation is Cramer’s willingness to overlook Giuliani’s substantial shortcomings. Giuliani is shamelessly running on his perceived accomplishments following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But his reputation is built more on myth than on fact, and the nation’s paid professional firefighters outline their issues with Giuliani in a documentary that can be found at www. rudy-urbanlegend.com. Giuliani’s treatment of our brothers and sisters with the Fire Department of New York after the terrorist attacks prevents the nation’s career firefighters from...

NEW YORK - Mayor Michael Bloomberg says preliminary air quality tests showed no danger Sunday morning in the area around the Deutsche Bank building, which burned for almost seven hours Saturday. The seven-alarm blaze brought back all too painful memories for the New York City Fire Department as the burning building, abandoned after 9/11, claimed two more lives. Robert Beddia, 54, had been on the job 23 years and was assigned to Engine 24. Joseph Graffagnino, 33, joined the FDNY eight years ago and was assigned to Ladder 5. "There were two men who were dedicated to helping this city...

Firefighters die in blaze by ground zero By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press Writer 22 minutes ago NEW YORK - A seven-alarm fire ripped through an abandoned skyscraper next to ground zero in Lower Manhattan Saturday, killing two firefighters who were responding to the blaze. ADVERTISEMENT Officers at the scene were preventing nearby residents from returning to their homes, telling them that authorities were concerned the former Deutsche Bank office building, vacant since the 2001 terrorist attacks turned it into a toxic nightmare, could fall. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that fear turned out to be unfounded. The plume of gray smoke...

Wednesday's steam pipe explosion happened several blocks away, but judging from recent angry exchanges between city and United Nations officials, if a similar emergency occurs at the U.N. building, rescue efforts are not likely to run nearly as efficiently as they did Wednesday on 41st Street and Lexington Avenue. Increasingly contentious haggling over issues such as legal jurisdiction and procurement rights have stymied efforts to address hundreds of violations of safety codes discovered at the U.N. building recently, more than 50 years after it was built, U.N. leaders have been slow to address them, frustrating the city's commissioner for the...

Possible GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson had two meetings on Rudolph Giuliani's home turf today. Thompson met with Michael Long, head of the state conservative party and with Steve Cassidy, president of the firefighters union. Yesterday, the International Association of Fire Fighters released a video, criticizing Giuliani's handling of 9/11. When asked about the controversy, the former Tennessee senator, a Republican, refused to weigh in and would not comment on Giuliani's record on 9/11. "I have the greatest respect for Steve and his organization and what they're doing,” said Thompson. “I've read about it but I don't have enough knowledge...

Possible GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson had two meetings on Rudolph Giuliani's home turf today. Thompson met with Michael Long, head of the state conservative party and with Steve Cassidy, president of the firefighters union. Yesterday, the International Association of Fire Fighters released a video, criticizing Giuliani's handling of 9/11. When asked about the controversy, the Tennessee Republican refused to weigh in and would not comment on Giuliani's record on 9/11. "I have the greatest respect for Steve and his organization and what they're doing,” said Thompson. “I've read about it but I don't have enough knowledge about it, and...

The FDNY is testing out a high-tech system to keep track of firefighters when they're battling blazes The fire department is working with the U.S. Navy to come up with a small, but hardy, electronic chip to lodge in firefighters' gear. The chip would transmit a signal when firefightrers moved near their trucks. That would let firefighters take roll automatically, instead of by hand. Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta says it would make firefighters' work safer. For example, the system could help make sure all firefighters are accounted for after they have to clear out of a burning building. The city...

Five Babies Saved From Harlem Apartment Fire February 12, 2007 Five babies are alive today thanks to the quick work of family and firefighters who saved them from a raging fire in Harlem. Flames erupted just before 3:30 Sunday afternoon at a building at Lennox Avenue and 116th Street. It's unclear what sparked the three alarm fire, but it's not considered suspicious. Victor Coit was able to rescue two of his grandchildren, but firefighters wouldn't let him go back for his twin granddaughters. "We escaped through the fire escape, through the living room window and came down, and as I...

Whiskey co.'s Bravest effort BY RICHARD WEIR DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER In 212 years, not much has changed on the label of a Jim Beam bottle - except the occasional addition of a new name to a list of distillers that spans seven generations. But the Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey has a new label in New York that pays tribute to the legacy of a fallen firefighter. Replacing the time-honored red seal and Jim Beam family crest is a red firefighter's helmet emblazoned with "343" - the number of firefighters who died on Sept. 11, 2001. Next to the helmet,...

President Bush hailed an FDNY paramedic last night at an Iftar dinner marking Islam's Ramadan holidays - calling the Brooklyn man courageous and compassionate and citing his near-death experience at Ground Zero on 9/11... "Paramedic Muhammad is a proud Muslim. He is a patriotic American."

The day after President Bush quoted her by name in his televised national address, 9/11 widow RoseEllen Dowdell was glowing. "I was kind of dumbfounded. It was pretty amazing to hear a President say your name," Dowdell, 49, said yesterday. Her husband, Kevin, a lieutenant with Rescue 4 in Queens, died in the World Trade Center attacks. "It was an honor for him to mention us." On Monday, the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Dowdell watched rapt from her Breezy Point home as the commander in chief described meeting her this year at West Point's graduation, where her...

Yesterday the President participated in 9/11 ceromonies in New York including attending a memorial service. Today he attended a ceremony at the Fort Pitt Firehouse on the lower east side of Manhattan afterwhich he travelled to Shanksville, Pennsylvania to lay a wreath at the Flight 93 crash site. He and the First Lady then went to the Pentagon to lay another wreath at the crash site there as in Shanksville the President and first lady met with families of those who lost their lives after the wreath laying ceremony. Yesterday the Vice President appeared on the Meet the Press. Today...

I just found this very touching video and thought I'd pass it along. The singer/song writer, Kristi Nelson, has a beautiful voice. Click on : Watch Mama Will Hold Me video at the link above (I couldn't get it to work in cable mode but it worked in 56k mode) It's been a tough day. Never Forget.

When the bell tolled, You answered the call, Without reservation only duty, To Honor your oath you came. With your valor never weakening, Your response to serve arrived, You set your course to save, Without hesitation you came.

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy honored the New York City Fire Department Sunday for its bravery and service on Sept. 11 in a ceremony on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the attacks. Sarkozy, who is expected to be the ruling conservative party's candidate for president in spring elections, was in New York to pay tribute to the city's police and fire departments as part of the commemoration of the anniversary. During his public appearances, he has played down tensions between the United States and France, emphasizing that their shared grief after Sept. 11 united them. "One thing is...

Lieutenant Peter Martin Rescue 2 Memorial Service was held on October 20, 2001. Laid to Rest on December 14, 2001. Lieutenant Peter Martin He Still Speaks to Her Lt. Peter C. Martin had plenty of interests. He liked to watch Nascar races, "glued to the TV," said his friend, Lt. Peter Lund. He also kept track of how many fires he had been to, perhaps inspired by a book, "20,000 Alarms," that was lying around the Rescue 2 firehouse in Brooklyn. And once a month, he would take out the antique rifles he collected, put on a cowboy hat and...

Richard Bruce Van Hine, 48, was a devout outdoorsman who left Bibles at shelters on the Appalachian Trail, where he often hiked. A resident of Greenwood Lake, N.Y., Van Hine was on duty at FDNY Squad 41 in the Bronx on Sept. 11 when he got the call that cost him his life doing the job he loved so much. Van Hine not only fought fires. He also taught at the Fire Department Training Academy at Randalls Island and was a member of the Special Operations Command. He and his family also served in ministry at the Warwick Valley...

Former commissioner salutes FDNY's recovery, reflects on post-9/11 finger-pointing During an interview this past week, a reporter asked me to describe Sept. 11, 2001 - the day the New York City Fire Department I led lost 343 of its own - in one word. My response was: "painful." It certainly seemed inadequate, but after having several days to think of a better one, I couldn't. Of course, my pain cannot compare to that of a parent who lost a son or a wife who lost a husband. But it is real. And, I must say, the pain has been compounded...

BCM, RIP.

President Bush will mark the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by having breakfast Monday with some of New York's Bravest at a lower East Side firehouse. The President will visit "Fort Pitt," the home of Ladder 18, Engine 15, Battalion 4 on Pitt St. "The guys are thrilled about it. We feel like we're being singled out for this honor. We were among the first responders at 9/11," Chief Pat Clifford of Battalion 4 said. "It's not every day that the President comes to your workplace for breakfast," he added. Bush will share a specially catered breakfast with 25...

Rescue 1, which was the first rescue company established in the entire United States, fights fires underground, pries people from high-rise elevators and pulls them from burning buildings. Their response area extends more than 100 Manhattan blocks. The men of FDNY’s elite Rescue 1 unit are specialists, called in to fight the unusual fires, free trapped firefighters, and save lives. One minute, they’re inside a high-rent high rise that’s spewing scalding steam onto Wall Street. The next, they’re racing uptown to a help a homeless man living under a bridge who has been hit by a train. They were heroes...

MILWAUKEE, WI (AP) -- Joe McRae has had many motorcycles over the years, but nothing comes close to his bright red Harley-Davidson. Part of a special line of bikes exclusively for firefighters, his Road King represents a tribute to the 343 firefighters who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he said. "It's not just a motorcycle. Most people don't understand that," said McRae, a fire captain for 25 years in Orem, Utah. "It's not a bike. It's an emotional thing. It represents more than just a motorcycle. It represents the brotherhood." Harley-Davidson spokesman Mike Morgan said calls starting coming...

CBS To Air Profanity-Laden Program It is time to tell CBS and the other networks that enough is enough!. Not content with all the profanity already on TV, CBS has decided to air the profanity-laden unedited version of "9/11" on Sept. 10. The decision by CBS is a slap in the face to the FCC and Congress, which recently raised indecency fines to $325,000 per incident. "9/11," which will be shown in prime-time, contains a tremendous amount of hardcore profanity. CBS has stated they have not, and will not, make any cuts in the amount and degree of profanity. CBS...

Courage comes in many forms. There is the courage of a 5-year-old child with a full understanding of his terminal illness; and that of his mother. There is the courage of a soldier on foot patrol in Fallujah, Iraq. There is the simple but often great courage it takes to tell the truth. And there is the courage of a firefighter. Firefighters are different - and extraordinary. There are few jobs in which your life, literally, depends on the person next to you. It is perhaps this simple, irrefutable truth that forges the bonds between them. There are few jobs...

New York City firemen and emergency personnel exposed to dust from the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings experienced a decrease in lung function capability equal to 12 years of age-related decline during the year following the 9/11 disaster. The results of a large-scale study outlining this reduction appear in the first issue for August 2006 of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society. Gisela I. Banauch, M.D., of the Pulmonary Division at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, and eight associates analyzed the lung function test results of 12,079 New...

James Corrigan served the city for 25 years as a firefighter and made the ultimate sacrifice on 9/11. But because he was retired, his name is missing from the bronze wall the FDNY unveiled at his old firehouse, Engine 10/Ladder 10, Saturday to honor the 343 Fire Department members killed that day. "I think he belongs as part of them," said his widow, Marie Corrigan, whose two sons joined the FDNY after 9/11. "I just feel that he reverted to being a fireman that day." Corrigan has met with fire officials and collected 11,000 names in an online petition to...

May 18, 2006 -- Here is a sneak peek at Oliver Stone's new movie "World Trade Center" - the first big-budget Hollywood film depicting the New York 9/11 attacks - and its harrowing, real-life portrayal of the last two Port Authority cops pulled from the rubble. The movie - the opening 26 minutes of which were screened for police officers last night - focuses on the horror and ensuing bravery of that day. "It's very emotional to watch, but I think most New Yorkers are ready to see it," said retired NYPD cop Scott Strauss, who worked as a consultant...

23 minutes ago NEW YORK - A raging fire laid waste to a complex of seven old warehouses on Brooklyn's waterfront on Tuesday, sending a huge plume of acrid smoke over Brooklyn that evoked memories of the World Trade Center attacks nearly five years ago. Shortly after the walls of one five-story brick warehouse collapsed, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said the cause of the 9-alarm fire would be investigated as possible arson. "We're calling it suspicious in origin," he said in a street news conference two blocks from the scene. "The buildings were fully involved with fire when the first...

2008 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton was in Senate reelection mode on Wednesday when she collected the endorsements of top officials from New York City's two firefighters unions. But at the ceremony announcing their support, rank and file members of New York's Bravest were nowhere in sight. "Mrs. Clinton chose to make a modest, almost quiet, appearance with about a dozen or so union officials in front of Ladder Company 157 on Flatbush Avenue," reported the New York Times. "The only audience members were hastily alerted reporters and camera crews, clustered on an empty sidewalk, instead of the crush of star-struck...

Fire forced a women to climb out of a window on the 25th floor of an apartment building. As she dangled 250 feet in the air, her husband and firefighters struggled to pull her to safety. It happened at 1700 Bedford Avenue in the Crown Heights, section of Brooklyn. That's where we find Eyewitness News reporter Stacey Sager, live with the story. It is not a time when you want to look down, that's for sure. In fact it's hard to believe anyone could stay clam when they're hanging off the roof of a high rise building. There's no doubt...

  Freepers We Need Your Help!!We have to try to get Sean Hannity to play the "Balad of Mike Moran" on his show. We need you guys to e-mail him so that he gets enough encouragement. Please point him towards the website of the Ballad http://www.firemansong.com . You can also e-mail program director Phil Boyce at WABC radio and ask him to have a host play the CD that you heard at the website. And while you're at it you can have Steve Malzberg play it, tell him you heard the clip of the song that's posted on his website. ...

Tom Cruise will personally mingle with some of the firefighters who battled the horrific scene during 9/11 tonight. The actor and his fiance, Katie Holmes, host a fundraising benefit in New York City tonight, amid blistering criticism.  Cruise has been criticized by fire-fighters injured in the 9/ll attacks - for suggesting they use Scientology to heal themselves and abandon alternative methods.The actor has reportedly urged people suffering the effects of smoke inhalation from the terrorist attacks to quit using their medication and inhalers - and start drinking cooking oil.The 'purification' program also reportedly advises people to take large doses of...

Desperate mom, trapped by flames, throws infant out window Tracinda Foxe is grateful to have her baby, Eric Guzman, back, thanks to Felix Vazquez, a Housing Authority supervisor. In video from building camera supplied by FDNY, Vazquez reaches out and grabs tiny Eric. With flames raging behind her, Bronx mom Tracinda Foxe held her newborn son out of her third-floor window yesterday, hoping to get air back into his tiny lungs, when she saw a crowd gathered below. She prayed. And then Foxe did the only thing she thought she could do to save her son: She dropped him. "I...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) -- A statue based on the famous photograph of the flag-raising at the World Trade Center site is being criticized because the three white firefighters in the picture have been transformed into one white, one black and one Hispanic.</p>

More Moran When that plane crashed into Belle Harbor, I first feared that "that bitch" Osama was indeed taking Firefighter Mike Moran up on his offer to come find him in Rockaway and smooch his posterior. Since his enthusiastic invitation to Osama Bin Laden at last month's Concert For New York, Moran has become a local celebrity, reprising (and further naughtying up) his heartfelt speech at bar room tributes and fundraisers throughout the city. Mike Moran lore has spread faster than that of Mahir, last year's Turkish Web Romeo. And now there's a song. In remembrance of my brothers, who ...

It's no secret the city's Police and Fire Departments are preparing for possible terrorist attacks, but now there's word that one of the main threats the FDNY is planning for is a nuclear attack. The FDNY says it's been training to combat threats like dirty bomb attacks or the detonation of a crude nuclear device. The department says it's particularly concerned about attacks on skyscrapers in Midtown Manhattan which would cause hundreds of thousands of casualties. As many as 3,000 firefighters have been trained as hazardous materials specialists, and every unit is now outfitted with radiation devices. The news comes...

Terrorists attacking New York City with a crude nuclear weapon or a dirty bomb are among the main threats the FDNY is preparing for, the department's top disaster planner said yesterday. Chief Joseph Pfeifer told a panel of security experts the FDNY is rapidly transforming itself into a terrorism-ready force that is equipped to respond to such potentially catastrophic attacks. "It's the training we do that'll make the difference between who gets saved and who doesn't get saved," Pfeifer said at the Council on Foreign Relations on E.68thSt. The FDNY is particularly concerned about terrorists developing a crude nuclear bomb...