Bethel Volunteer Fire Dept. Hosts ‘Black Sunday’ Presentation, Story of Multi-Firefighter Loss of Life

“Fighting a tenement blaze on a freezing January day now called Black Sunday, two firemen were killed and four were forced to jump out the window in a tragedy everybody thinks could have been prevented.” –NY Magazine

The Bethel Volunteer Fire Department hosted a ‘Black Sunday” presentation at Bethel Middle School on Monday, March 14, 2016, from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

This was a narrative of the January 23, 2005 multi-firefighter loss of life, when 6 firefighters were forced to jump from a forth floor window of a burning Bronx apartment building.  The East 178th Street blaze in the Morris Heights section of The Bronx subsequently resulted in the loss of three of the six firefighters and serious injuries to the remaining three.

Firefighter Eugene Stolowski presented a comprehensive overview of the incident from a personal perspective. 

Written by Rob Fish:

Eighty Firefighters from Bethel, Stony Hill, and other area departments, attended a narrative presentation from FDNY Firefighter Eugene Stolowski on Monday night at the Bethel Middle School.

Firefighter Stolowski is one of three survivors of what would become forever known as “Black Sunday”   (Read story here: http://nymag.com/news/features/26574/), a fire in the Bronx that would force 6 Firefighters to jump from the 5th floor windows of the illegal “SRO” (Single Room Occupancy) tenement. Landing in a narrow alleyway, the fall would kill two of them almost instantly, and a third that would succumb six years later from the physical impact of his injuries. The three survivors would face major traumatic injuries from the nearly 50 foot fall. As fate would have it, another FDNY Firefighter was killed in a fire in Brooklyn that very same day.

Stolowski, who was hospitalized for 8 months and would face 2 more years of physical rehabilitation, is now retired due to the career ending injuries he suffered that morning. He now travels to share his story and educate other firefighters about how rapidly things that were out of their control can (and did) go wrong, and how there might have been a better outcome.

The event was hosted by the Bethel Volunteer Fire Department, and sponsored by JP Maguire Associates. (http://www.jpmaguire.com/)