Day of reckoning for civil servant scammers

From NBC 4:

More than 100 former police officers, firefighters and other city workers faked mental disabilities in order get tens of thousands of dollars in Social Security benefits a year, NBC 4 New York has learned.

But an investigation has revealed the former city workers were pursuing other activities that appeared to negate their claims. One police officer who claimed he was so mentally disabled was allegedly working as a martial arts instructor, officials said. Another who claimed he could not work was allegedly flying helicopters.

One got benefits because of a fear of crowds and yet was found to be selling cannolis in Little Italy during the San Genarro festival. And another went on to allegedly run a private security company.

Many allegedly claimed to be affected by their efforts on 9/11, yet investigators found many were not even near ground zero that day.

All allegedly got help gaming the system from the same two lawyers, ages 89 and 83, and two former police officers who in exchange allegedly took cash payments.

Investigators said one of the attorneys who helped run the scheme is Raymond Lavallee, who worked as an FBI agent in the 1950s and '60s. Calls to Lavallee’s home and law office were not returned Monday.

The criminal charges expected to be announced Tuesday will include 106 people in all.

The more than 100 workers were allegedly taught how to claim they were mentally scarred on SSID applications in order to collect $30,000 to $50,000 in benefits annually.

Investigators said Lavallee would receive thousands in cash payments from successful applicants that were at times left for him in paper bags on a park bench near his office.

Supposedly sealed building caught fire

From the Queens Gazette:

Fire marshals are looking into the cause of a stubborn, smoky fire on the afternoon of June 10 that destroyed a vacant home on 47th Street in Astoria, fire officials said.

Twenty-five fire units and 106 firefighters responded at about 4:30 p.m. to the two-alarm blaze at 31-40 47th Street that sent one firefighter to Mount Sinai Queens with burn injuries, a fire spokesperson said. Several other firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation and other injuries at the scene.

Fire marshals arrived at the scene a short while before the blaze was brought under control, to begin combing through the remains of the building to determine exactly what sparked the fire. Fire officials would not say if the blaze is considered suspicious.

I think I have the answer:

Historic fire tower in danger of collapse

From the Daily News:

The fire watchtower in the middle of Marcus Garvey Park — one of the city’s most spectacular and least-known landmarks — is deteriorating in danger of collapsing, the Daily News has learned.

Bits and pieces of the 47-foot, corroded cast-iron structure have already fallen to the ground — and a strip of sheet metal from the top of its observation deck flew off in 2012 and got stuck in the branches of a tree, residents say.

“We are seeing small pieces of it collapse and fall to the ground — right in front of our eyes,” says Angel Ayon, a local architect and preservationist who notes that urgent action to disassemble and restore the tower cannot be delayed.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/time-ticks-marcus-garvey-park-watchtower-article-1.1232753#ixzz2H2NOgRjb

Parks officials say the long-term solution is to dismantle, salvage, restore and reassemble the tower, a $4.5 million project for which no funds are budgeted.

Until cash for the major reconstruction is available, the city plans a $325,000 stabilization of the highest, most vulnerable level of the tower, an emergency stop-gap approach that will be put out to bid later this year.

How the Grinch tried to steal Thanksgiving

From the Daily News:

Bobby Eustace, a firefighter out of Ladder 27 in the Bronx, has been serving free hot food to the homeless and displaced and to relief workers and volunteers in Breezy Point, Queens, since two days after the hurricane hit.

On Sunday, Eustace and dozens of fellow firefighter volunteers served 800 free hot meals from a steamy Army tent in this hemorrhaging beach community, where there are no longer stores or restaurants, where most people have no gas to cook with, no heat or hot water and no hot food.

That afternoon, a freon-blooded inspector from the city’s Department of Health issued Eustace a notice of violation for not meeting the same food-handling standards as, say, the Four Seasons.

This is beyond outrageous.

This is Emperor Bloomberg’s bureaucracy gone completely mad in a time of death and destruction in the week of Thanksgiving and when the decent people of this city have united to help the unfortunate.

This is what the city of New York did for the relief effort of Sandy victims.

This notice of violation is a violation of human decency.

Mayor Bloomberg should bury his head in shame in the sands of Breezy Point.

Fire dept's equipment destroyed by storm

From NY1:

With their equipment still damp from the flood waters, the head of the West Hamilton Beach Volunteer Fire Department said he doesn't know when they will be able to replace the fire trucks and ambulances they lost in the flood. Three fire engines and two ambulances were destroyed.

The volunteers say the water swept through the firehouse in a matter of minutes. It happened as a crew was helping residents.

The West Hamilton Beach Volunteer Fire Department has been around for more than a century and it's been a lifeline for this tiny beach community.

This was the place where many went for food and clothes after the power went out, but now that the lights are back on, they are working on getting new equipment.

A backup ambulance and the rig they received from the Hooversville Volunteer Fire Department this week is just about all they have.

How do we get laws like this here?

From Fox 5:

The architect of a Hollywood Hills mansion where a ceiling collapsed and killed a firefighter during a blaze was charged Wednesday with involuntary manslaughter as a result of his shoddy work, prosecutors said.

Gerhard Becker, 48, was charged after investigators found grossly negligent construction at the newly built, 12,500-square-foot home, authorities said.

Becker left the country after last year's fire and was arrested when he flew from Spain to Los Angeles on Saturday. He remained jailed and, if convicted, could be sentenced to up to four years in state prison.

5 Pointz set ablaze on Rescue Me

Last week's episode of "Rescue Me" on the FX Network saw 5Pointz on fire.

Here are some stills featuring the building:





The cliffhanger ending had the place explode with the crew of firemen inside.

Retired firefighter owns firetraps

From the Daily News:

For years, landlord John Mayo was cited repeatedly for renting out illegal apartments - just the kind that fire officials deem dangerous death traps.

City inspectors hit his buildings again and again with violations, including citations for apartments with no second exits and a blocked fire escape.

What makes Mayo's case different from the average accused slumlord is this: Mayo is a retired New York City firefighter.

Since 2005, the city has repeatedly cited four of Mayo's South Bronx buildings for illegal apartments or SROs, missing and defective smoke detectors, exposed electrical wires, apartments with no second egress, even a blocked fire escape, records show.

Since 2007, when Mayo retired from the FDNY, three rowhouses he owns on one Bronx block have been the subject of 15 illegal apartment complaints, including two this month. One building has 150 outstanding housing-code violations, records show.

Residents on the block say Mayo turned the buildings into illegal boarding houses that are potential firetraps - a growing concern since a fire in an illegal Bronx SRO last month killed a 12-year-old and his parents.

As a former firefighter, neighbors say, Mayo should know all about the dangers of illegal apartments.

Council looks at raising age for FDNY exam

From NY1:

Hundreds of would-be firefighters sat for the New York City Fire Department's entrance exam back in 2007, hoping to fulfill a dream of become members of New York's Bravest. Many aced the exam, but that test, and two others before it, were thrown out because federal judge Nicholas Garaufis ruled they illegally discriminated against blacks and Hispanics.

No firefighters have been hired since and the city can only hire candidates from the invalidated test if the court signs off on the method used. Four years have passed and now many candidates are too old to take a new test that's currently being drafted by the city.

Under the current rule, candidates must be under 29 years of age on the day of the test. NY1 has learned that on Monday, a bill that would formally change that age requirement to 35 will go before the City Council.

Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano supports the age extension and even met with some candidates to tell them he's behind them.

Sources say it's not likely the FDNY will give a new entrance exam until sometime late 2011. Based on its hiring practices in the past, it will take about a year and a half to hire from that list, which means it could be a very long time before the fire department sees any probationary firefighters among its ranks.

The 3 people pictured all passed the test but it was invalidated by the court decision and they are now too old to take it again.

Firefighter caught lying

From the NY Post:

A "disabled" city firefighter is still battling blazes while he rakes in a taxpayer-funded pension.

Retired FDNY Lt. John Brown, who left the department after 9/11 with a tax-free $82,000 disability pension, has responded to hundreds of fires in his Long Island hometown since leaving the FDNY, The Post has learned.

Brown, 53, a 24-year veteran assigned to Ladder Co. 165 in St. Albans, Queens, was awarded a three-quarter disability pension in September 2002 after the FDNY determined he had developed reactive airway disease, an asthma-like condition, after toiling at Ground Zero.

Yet Brown has been found fit to serve as a New Hyde Park fire commissioner and firefighter, a Post probe found.

Brown joins other city firefighters revealed by The Post to be performing Herculean feats after retiring with three-quarter disability pensions -- including a former lieutenant who now competes in triathlons and long-distance runs and another ex-firefighter who takes part in martial-arts bouts.