Three FDNY firefighters who survived the infamous Black Sunday tragedy more than a decade ago and the families of two Bravest who died were awarded $183 million by a Bronx jury on Monday.
The Jan. 23, 2005, blaze trapped the firefighters in a blazing apartment on the top floor of a five-story Bronx building, and they had to jump for their lives.
The men had no safety ropes, which had been standard equipment until five years before the tragedy.
“The families of the deceased firefighters and the surviving firefighters brought lawsuits against the owner of the building for allowing the construction of illegal partition walls in the apartment, which blocked access to the fire escape,” the firefighters’ lawyers said in a statement.
“They also sued the City of New York for failing to provide firefighters with personal safety ropes, which would have enabled the men to safely self-evacuate from the burning building.”
The city is on the hook for 80 percent of the award.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers successfully argued that the firefighters would have lived and that the survivors would not have suffered such devastating injuries had they been able to lower themselves using the rope.
Lt. Curtis Meyran and firefighter John Bellew were killed after hitting the ground. Meyran’s family settled its case separately and was not part of the jury award.
Firefighter Joseph DiBernardo, whose heels and feet were crushed by the impact, died six years later from the physical and psychological toll of his injuries, which required heavy doses of daily medication, the lawyers said.
Firefighters Gene Stolowski, Jeff Cool and Brendan Cawley survived the tragedy, but continue to suffer from life-changing and permanent injuries.
The jury decided that Cesar Rios, the former landlord of the building at 236 E. 178th St., was 20 percent to blame for allowing illegal sublets at the building to boost his profits.
A rep for the city’s Law Department called the deaths tragic, but disputed that the city was 80 percent to blame and hinted at an appeal.
“The city has always viewed this incident as a tragedy for the firefighters and their families, but we believe that the jury’s verdict does not fairly apportion liability in view of compelling evidence that established that the landlord’s numerous building code violations were directly responsible for this horrible event,” the spokesman said.
“We will review the record and evaluate our legal options.”