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HEAT’S ON BX. POL FOR FIRE FUNDS

A nonprofit group with ties to Bronx City Councilman Larry Seabrook received more than $300,000 in city money to improve firefighter diversity - a program that did little beyond burn cash, sources said.

The “Firefighter Advocacy Program” - run by the Northeast Bronx Redevelopment Corp. - was supposed to “produce up to 25 members of the NY Fire Department each year,” increase “the number of minority applicants and firefighters” and provide “information and services . . . [for] minority recruitment,” according to the organization’s proposal.

In 2006 the group received $310,000 for the effort - with $205,000 earmarked for staff salaries.

Two years later, the FDNY says its only contact with the group was a request to provide free posters and recruitment materials - which it was asked to leave in Seabrook’s office.

A source affiliated with the group said it did print recruitment materials and do community outreach, but steered most applicants into already established training programs run by the Vulcans, the FDNY’s association of black firefighters, and John Jay College. The group also gave about $15,000 to the Vulcans for study materials.

But it’s unclear where the bulk of the $310,000 went - the group’s proposal shows it filled two of 12 funded positions. One was an administrative assistant. The other was the $25,000 “executive director” position, which went to Gloria Jones-Grant - who reportedly already receives a $71,000 salary from the Northeast Bronx Redevelopment Corp.

The proposal also included $42,000 for rent - even though Northeast Bronx said it would work out of its existing offices.

Seabrook has long been linked to the organization, once located in the same building as his office. In March, the city froze his request for $912,000 to the obscure Bronx African American Chamber of Commerce, also in that building.

Jones-Grant and Seabrook did not return multiple calls for comment.

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In ‘911: The Bronx,’ Reality TV Gets Tough

 

Gritty ‘911: The Bronx’ takes Discovery Channel in a new direction.

A man who survived a fall is stabilized in the ER on ‘911: The Bronx.’

Real life washes up in the emergency room.

For camera crews shooting Discovery Channel’s “911: The Bronx” in the emergency room at St. Barnabas Hospital in the South Bronx, that real life includes gunshot wounds, a severe head injury to a man who jumped out of a window and a 12-year-old hit by a car and left with a mangled foot.

“When human beings get into trouble, they really get into trouble,” said Paul Gasek, the show’s executive producer and the senior science editor at Discovery. “These people are right at death’s door. This is the portal; the doctors are the gatekeepers.”

The show follows the staff of the emergency room as they grapple with a slew of patients. Some have been rushed to the hospital by ambulance, others simply walk in.

The program was shot last summer at St. Barnabas, a teaching hospital that cooperated on the production. Laws limiting the release of patient information made the work a bit of a challenge. After segments were filmed, the producers had to get permission to use them. Some people didn’t want their stories told.

“We shot an enormous amount of footage,” Gasek said. “But not all the stories panned out. Not all the people agreed to be on. We shot a number of stories that never made it to air, which we destroyed.”

Gasek admitted the show was a hard sell at the channel. There were questions about whether a gritty, sometimes gory, series fit in with the Discovery brand.

“This is not a medical show,” Gasek said. “It’s a reality show set in a hospital. We have heroes. We have real-life scenarios.”

In the first episode, one patient is the man who fell four stories, landing on his head. Another is a guy who sliced his finger on a meat cutter. Another is a pregnant woman with a broken arm. One of the most dramatic stories, however, is about a kid hit by a car. He keeps asking the staff if he’s going to die.

As of now, there are no plans to produce more than the six episodes available. Discovery will air three back-to-back, hour-long episodes tomorrow.

“There’s a little bit of uncertainty about whether they’ll [viewers] respond or not,” Gasek said. “If they tune in, they’ll have trouble turning away.

“This is really just about being in the hallway, being in the room. This is what you’ll see when there,” he said. “It’s visceral - I hope it’s not too visceral. I’m hoping people will respond.”

SOURCE: NYDailyNews.com

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Bronx Neighborhood Shocked By Graffiti On 9/11 Mural 

Two women walk past defaced memorial mural to Firefighter Peter Bielfeld.

Over several nights this month, a graffiti vandal stared into the face of Firefighter Peter Bielfeld, who lost his life rushing into the World Trade Center - and coldly spray-painted right over it.

Now the Olinville community where Bielfeld lived, the South Bronx community where he worked and Bielfeld’s family are raging, and out to punish whoever defaced the memorial wall mural of Bielfeld.

“It’s ridiculous. It is very personal,” said Bielfeld’s father, Ernest, 73, who held memorial services at the mural in memory of his son on Olinville Ave., before his son’s remains were found. “It’s such an emotional thing for us. Angry? I’m pissed off.”

The defaced mural is at Thwaites Place, down the street from where the 44-year-old Bielfeld lived on Barker Ave., on the wall of a bodega where he regularly bought cigars.

Bielfeld’s face and much of the rest of the mural was obliterated by the bubble-letter tag - “SIPS.”

“How could you do something like that? 9/11 has touched everyone,” said Victor DiPierro, community affairs officer for the 49th Precinct, who has added his own $250 to the NYPD’s $500 reward to catch the defacer. “It’s just so disrespectful. It’s blatant.”

DiPierro calls graffiti his “forever arch nemesis.” He goes out on the street weekly, cleaning graffiti off walls. But, graffiti on a memorial mural? DiPierro compared it to defacing a tombstone.

He warned “SIPS” that he will most likely have the same fate as a similar defacer whose tag was “SNEZ.”

DiPierro spent a year hunting for SNEZ, who defaced a 9/11 mural in Morris Park. When he found the 14-year-old at the end of the spray can, he was punished by the law and his parents. DiPierro said he will similarly canvas the area’s schools to find SIPS.

DiPierro is also working with Eddie Rodriguez, who painted Bielfeld’s mural, and who has agreed to restore the image, which has a twin near Ladder 42, Engine 73, where Bielfeld worked. The firehouse, the 49th Precinct Community Council and DiPierro plan on splitting the cost of the restoration.

Ernest Bielfeld hopes the mural will be a permanent record of the story of his son, who had been injured the weekend before Sept. 11 and was visiting the fire department’s medical office when the planes hit.

He rushed downtown, borrowed equipment from a different firehouse and left behind a note for his family expressing his love in case he did not make it back.

“It tells a story of a good guy who did above and beyond the call of duty,” Bielfeld said. “When one of your kids goes, it’s indescribable. But it is not in memory of just Peter, but the 343 firemen who were murdered.”

SOURCE: NYDailyNews.com

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Fire Dept. to Send Units First, Save the Questions for Later

A pilot program for Fire Department dispatchers in Queens was so successful in improving response times that it will be extended across the city next month, the department said on Tuesday.

Under the program, which started on Feb. 14, dispatchers were trained to spend less time on the phone confirming the location and nature of the emergency in order to expedite getting units to the scene.

The program requires dispatchers to continue to obtain information — including the cross street and a contact number from the person or persons calling in the emergency — while the fire units are en route, the department said in a statement. The responding units are then given radio updates in their trucks.

Under the previous system, the additional questions had to be asked before dispatchers could assign units to an emergency, the department said.

The program has been criticized by union officials, who have said that the department needed more trucks and personnel, not new rules for its dispatchers.

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Bronx Fire Leaves 20 Displaced

A three-alarm fire on Washington Avenue in the Bronx Friday evening left 20 displaced from their homes and left five firefighters with minor injuries.

According to authorities, the fire began shortly before 5:30 p.m. in an unoccupied three-story building, and then spread to four more three-story buildings, three of which were occupied.

The fire was reported to be under control shortly after 8:00 p.m.

Of 138 fire fighters who helped but out the fire, five received minor injuries.

No residents were injured, but 13 adults and seven children were forced out of their homes.

SOURCE: NY1.com Read more..

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