Black Sunday survivor Jeff Cool urges firefighter protection, stronger laws and enforcement

RAMAPO − Jeff Cool has a message, and it's supported by his battered body that cheated death after falling four stories from a burning Bronx building nearly two decades ago.

Cool, a retired New York City firefighter, has made it his mission to ensure firefighters are kept safe in a dangerous profession, and well-equipped, better trained and respected by the government. He advocates relentlessly for tougher building and fire codes, and stronger enforcement and prosecution, which he argued are lax in parts of Rockland County.

FDNY retired firefighter Jeff Cool speaks at Rockland County Fire Training Center

FDNY's Jeff Cool: Jury verdict doesn't soothe 'Black Sunday' memories

Jury award: Rockland FDNY families to share in $183M award

"I put my heart and soul every time I do this," Cool told the 350 people, mostly firefighters, who packed the auditorium at the Fire Training Center on Monday night. "I do this for you guys. This is about saving lives."

Jeff Cool knows about pain and suffering and survival

On Jan. 23, 2005, Cool, 38 years old at the time, survived a four-story fall from a burning Bronx building filled with illegal rooms on what's been infamously called "Black Sunday." He and five comrades — two of whom died that day — became trapped in the burning building, the entrance leading to a fire escape boarded up.

He recalls the wintry day with high winds and 12 inches of snow. The firefighters got the blaze under control within 38 minutes, but illegal conditions inside the apartment building that firefighters walked blindly into − with makeshift rooms and a blocked fire escape − caused the harm.

Cool broke 13 ribs, both shoulders and his pelvis in four places. He also suffered cracked bones in his spine and neck and fractured his skull in two spots. Doctors put his body and organs back together. He spent nearly three weeks in a coma and lost 72 units of blood.

Cool relives his near-death experience as part of the Lt. Joseph P. DiBernardo Memorial Foundation, which he said has raised close to $1 million since its creation a decade ago.

Money raised from his $25 per person fee for his Monday night talk goes to the foundation and the Rockland County Fire Instructors Association through the Andy Fredericks Memorial Scholarship. Fredericks, 40, a New York City firefighter and the father of two, died on Sept. 11, 2001, during the collapse of Twin Towers. He had been a volunteer instructor at a fire training center, where a statue of him has been erected amid the wall honoring fallen firefighters.

Cool said 100% of the money raised for the foundation goes toward training for firefighters and funding personal safety systems, such as potentially life-saving rope systems in case firefighters get trapped and need to jump to a safer area.

Jeff Cool retells the 'Black Sunday' tragedy

Cool said DiBernardo saved his life during the Bronx blaze. They were trapped on the top floor and Cool produced a rope, an incomplete personal safety system. Cool said he wrapped himself with the rope and DiBernardo held the other end.

"Joey was on my left," Cool said, recalling the painful memory. "He said to me: 'You have a wife and kids. You go first.' That was the bravest act you were ever going to see."

DiBernardo's heels and feet were crushed by the impact of the roughly 50-foot fall, Cool said, describing his friend's injuries as "catastrophic." DiBernardo died six years later from the physical and psychological impact of his injuries, Cool said.

Like Cool, firefighters Eugene Stolowski and Brendan Cawley suffered life-altering injuries during their falls. Firefighters John Bellew of Pearl River and Lt. Curtis Meyran died from their falls.

And Cool has lived the lack of enforcement as a New York City firefighter. He's been involved in the fire services since age 14 with the Rockland Explores. He was a firefighter in the U.S. Air Force.

Cool discussed the need for tougher enforcement and equipping firefighters with life-saving equipment.

A Bronx jury confirmed the lack of equipment became a factor in awarding the "Black Sunday" firefighters and their families $183 million in February 2016. The jurors found New York City 80% responsible for the deaths and injuries. The landlord was found liable for 20%. No one was prosecuted criminally.

At the heart of the lawsuit against the city became the fire department's failure to equip firefighters with personal safety ropes that would have let them escape the burning building.

The FDNY now equips its firefighters with safety ropes, but it didn't at the time of the Black Sunday blaze. A harness-type rope system used from the mid-1980s until about 2000 had been discontinued at the time of the Bronx fire. Cool emphasized how mind-boggling it was for him and others that then-FDNY Commissioner Thomas Von Essen decided to eliminate the Personal Safety Systems in 1999.

Cool, still a West Haverstraw firefighter, lives with the physical and mental pain from his injuries and memories of his fallen comrades. Married with two children, the former hockey player said he can't walk well and arthritis is taking over his shoulders and wrist.

"My body was put back together with Krazy Glue and duct tape," Cool said in a 2016 interview with The Journal News. "That's a joke, but in fact, I live with survivor's guilt, post-traumatic stress."

Cool's presentation on Monday came with a gut-wrenching Power Point of photos, video, and radio command broadcasts with multiple distress calls of mayday from trapped firefighters.

"Our officials are not doing enough to make our firefighters safe," Cool said. "What is it going to take, another firefighter dying?"

Cool's experience and advocacy helped lead to the creation of the Rockland Illegal Housing Task Forece, which reports buildings in violation of fire and building codes to local Building Departments and the state.

Task force members have not been happy with the building enforcement or the state oversight. After years of advocacy about enforcement and penalties by the task force, the state deputized the county government to take over Spring Valley's building department in February 2022. The state had monitors station in Ramapo and Spring Valley for years but that didn't solve the lack of enforcement.

Rockland Buildings and Codes reported that since the office was formed in February 2022, 844 properties in Spring Valley were inspected. The office said about 7,500 violations were issued and a quarter of a million dollars levied in fines. On average, other municipalities typically discover one or two violations per property while the Office of Building and Codes discovered an average of 10 in Spring Valley.

The county office only has state authority to enforce the codes in Spring Valley.

County Executive Ed Day said: "Illegal housing is becoming a major problem, and in this village, it’s at near-crisis level. The sad reality is enforcement is only a Band-Aid and not solving the true cause of this issue. It is up to those we elect to local office to make sure development is happening properly, responsibly, and safely. If this doesn’t change at the local level, it’s only a matter of time before we see another tragedy like the Evergreen Court fire."

Good housing advocates note that despite the increased oversight and publicity, the problem has not come close to subsiding.

They noted that nearly two years ago on March 23, 2021, Spring Valley Second Lt. Jared Lloyd, 35, the father of two young boys, died when brick portions of the violation-laden, rundown Evergreen Court Home for Adults collapsed on him. Lloyd and dozens of other firefighters were rescuing 112 residents from the inferno destroying the massive building on Lafayette Street. Several other firefighters were injured and one resident, Oliver Hueston, 79, died.

Cool said he and other advocates are frustrated about the continuing violations and the lack of succession prosecutions — two negotiated dismissals and an acquittal. Charges remain against a former Spring Valley Building Department inspector Ray Canario and two rabbis accused of causing the fire.

"Two years ago, we lost Jared Lloyd and nothing has changed," Cool said, with some bitterness in his voice. "People say he was a great firefighter; he was a hero. Yes. Now do something for firefighters when they are alive to keep them safe."

Steve Lieberman covers government, breaking news, courts, police, and investigations. Reach him at slieberm@lohud.com. Twitter: @lohudlegal.

Read more articles and bio. Our local coverage is only possible with support from our readers.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: FDNY's Jeff Cool relives horrors of Black Sunday