Talk Bronx New York

They walked the halls of the Bronx courthouse slowly, a little haltingly, but their steps were filled with purpose. Dress blue FDNY uniforms covered their many scars.

Firefighter Eugene Stolowski’s neck can’t move; he must turn his upper body to see sideways. Retired Firefighter Jeffery Cool stands straight, belying constant pain.

“We’re not supposed to be alive today,” they both like to say.
SEE: FDNY FIREFIGHTERS SAVE DROWNING WOMAN

Three years and eight months ago, they both clinically died on the cold pavement 50 feet below a burning Bronx apartment. They had jumped because there was no other escape.

Through their miraculous recoveries, they have awaited the trial of three people accused of creating the disastrous conditions in the building that forced them and four other firefighters to leap, two of them to their deaths.

“Our lives changed on Jan. 23, 2005,” said Cool, referring to Black Sunday. “You want to close this chapter, but it can’t close until this case is finished. Every day, I look in the mirror and see the scars. I want to see justice.”

Cool, Stolowski and the other two firefighters who survived the plunge, Joseph DiBernardo and Brendan Cawley, have attended the court appearances since manslaughter indictments were handed up in March 2006. So have relatives of the deceased, John Bellew and Lt. Curtis Meyran.

Last week, Cool and Stolowski heard the trial postponed again, this time until Dec. 1.

Both the defense and the prosecution say the lengthy wait has been unavoidable.

“There were motion delays,” said a spokesman for the Bronx district attorney’s office. “The defense has every right to file motions.”

Then one of the defense lawyers got sick. Now the prosecutor has medical issues.

Acting Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett told the lawyers during a bench conference, “We’re on a slow track,” and urged them to be ready on the new date.

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While Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión is playing coy about his political plans should Mayor Bloomberg succeed in extending term limits, other Bronx politicians are not.

Carrión, who is running for city controller, said last week he has no doubt the City Council will approve the term limits extension, but he insists it’s still too early to say whether he will flip back and seek reelection to his $160,000-a-year borough presidency.

Much will depend, of course, on what the current controller, Bill Thompson, chooses to do. For now, Thompson is insisting he’s still running for mayor, Bloomberg or no Bloomberg.

Assuming that neither Thompson nor Carrión are politically suicidal, the smart money is on both running next year to keep their current jobs.

That, of course, would force Carrión’s would-be Bronx successors to rethink their game plans for 2009.

Heading the list is Councilman Joel Rivera, (D-East Tremont) son of endangered county Democratic leader Assemblyman Jose Rivera.

“I think you’re going to see a lot of the citywide and local officials postpone their plans for four years,” he said. “And that’s all it’s going to end up being.”

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