Posted by David Seifman (165.247.13.150) on November 19, 2001 at 09:07:53:
FDNY: You Can Fight City Hall
DAVID SEIFMAN
Courtesy New York Post
The Giuliani administration - admitting it made "mistakes" - is restoring all
the firefighters it removed from recovery duty at the World Trade Center
site, officials said yesterday.
Fire Commissioner Thomas Von
Essen said 75 firefighters, along
with 50 cops, would be on hand
around the clock to try to spot
remains as the clean-up operation
proceeds.
Infuriated firefighters clashed with
cops a couple of weeks ago during
a protest against a reduction of the
recovery detail to 25 firefighters.
More than 200 firefighters, along
with thousands of civilians and
other uniformed officers, have not
been found since the Sept. 11
attack.
Mayor Giuliani said at the time that
the cutback was being made for
safety reasons, to prevent
firefighters from being injured or
killed by massive cranes.
But two emotional meetings with
firefighters' widows and other
relatives convinced the mayor and
Von Essen to not only back off the
manpower reduction, but to remove
some of the heavy equipment.
With the mayor standing by his side
at Fire Department headquarters in
Brooklyn, Von Essen conceded the
administration had acted too
hastily.
"We wished we had talked about some of the issues beforehand, but we
didn't," he said.
"We made some mistakes, but the intentions have never been anything
but the same on both sides."
City officials also agreed to have firefighters' relatives recommend how
funds are allocated in future disbursements from the Twin Towers Fund.
Lee Ielpi, a 26-year veteran of the Fire Department and friend of Von
Essen, acted as a mediator in the dispute with the firefighters' families.
Ielpi's son, Jonathan, of Engine 288 in Queens, died at the trade center.
Kevin Gallagher, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, said it
was "gratifying to see that this union and its membership's efforts to speak
out against the reduction in manning were not in vain."