FDNY captain claims firefighters ‘do not run into burning buildings’

By Susan Edelman August 27, 2017 | 3:01am | Updated
Modal Trigger FDNY captain claims firefighters ‘do not run into burning buildings’
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A veteran FDNY captain threw water on the notion that the job of New York’s Bravest is dangerous, insisting in a pitch to potential minority recruits that firefighters “do not run into burning buildings.”

Capt. Paul Washington, who launched a landmark racial-discrimination lawsuit against the city, is now getting heat for his “ridiculous” and “insulting” comments last March to a group of young people at Borough of Manhattan Community College.

“Everyone’s afraid — they think they’re going to get hurt or killed,” Washington said in his presentation. “We do not run into burning buildings. We do not run into burning buildings.”

His audience laughed.

Washington explained: “You see a fire, you see smoke coming out of the window. The whole building is not on fire, all right? There’s one apartment in that building that’s on fire. In fact, there’s probably one room in that one apartment that’s on fire.”

He estimated that in recent years, an average of two FDNY firefighters have died on the job annually — “if you take out 9/11.”

In his view, that makes the odds of survival on a force of 10,000 firefighters pretty good.

“What’s the chances you’re going to be one of those two people who die out of 10,000? I’ll take those chances. It’s a very small risk,” he said.

Washington — a former president of the Vulcans, a fraternity of black FDNY firefighters — added that African-Americans face a greater risk of getting gunned down on the street.

“Let’s be honest — you’re talking about unarmed black men being shot and killed,” he said. “The neighborhoods we live in are more dangerous than two in 10,000 people dying.”

Popular culture exaggerates the perils of firefighting, he said.

“You see the movies, they run up the stairs and everything’s burning,” he said. “It’s not like that.”

His audience laughed again.

“It can be a dangerous job, but it’s not nearly as dangerous as people think,” Washington said.

FDNY spokesman Frank Dwyer did not back Washington’s remarks, noting 1,147 members have died in the line of duty in the department’s 152-year history, most recently firefighters Michael Fahy, killed in a Bronx explosion last year, and William Tolley, who fell from a roof while battling a Queens fire in April.

“Firefighting will always be a very dangerous profession,” Dwyer said, praising the more than 72,000 “brave men and women” who have signed up to take the next city firefighter entrance exam this fall.

“He’s doing a tremendous disservice, not only to those prospective employees, but to every firefighter in the city, and to the millions of people they have sworn to protect,” said Pete Critsimilios, a former chief FDNY physical trainer.

Firefighters, Critsimilios noted, have suffered horrific burns and disabling injuries on the job.

“The job is highly dangerous. It’s dirty. It’s scary on occasion. It’s physically demanding,” he said. “For him to downplay those dangers to potential applicants, in my opinion, borders on criminal.”

A retiree invoked the hundreds of firefighters killed when the Twin Towers fell on 9/11.

“What does Washington call the World Trade Center?” the retiree said. “Over 500 firefighters went into that burning building, and 343 of them didn’t come out.”

Washington began his speech by saying that “the best thing about this job by far” is helping people. But he quickly turned to the job’s “tangible” benefits, including $100,000-plus salaries after five years, five weeks of vacation and a pension of half-salary, or three-quarters if injured on the job, after 22 ½ years.

He made no other mention of the 343 firefighters killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, or the 149 FDNY rescue and recovery workers who have since died of 9/11-related illnesses.

Nor did he cite studies finding that firefighters face a higher risk of cancer, and that the No. 1 killer of firefighters is heart attacks.

He recalled his own sole injury, a “small burn” on his leg, and how he got paid while off for seven weeks: “I was just home relaxing.”
Washington, 55, helped launch the Vulcans’ federal suit in 1987 — later joined by the US Justice Department — charging the FDNY with extensive racial discrimination. The de Blasio administration settled in 2014, agreeing to pay $100 million in back pay and benefits to blacks and Hispanics who didn’t get hired.

“It was an all-white job,” he said. “We beat the Fire Department over the head year after year, and things are changing now.”

The FDNY remains under court orders to diversify. In its latest recruitment campaign, the FDNY saw a record number of minorities signing up to take the entrance exam, with 63 percent of applicants of African-American, Latino or Asian descent.

Washington declined to comment.