Retired FDNY Firefighter Joseph DiBernardo Jr., a survivor of the catastrophic 2005 “Black Sunday” fire in the Bronx, passeed away yesterday. DiBernardo, 40, was found dead in his Long Island home early Tuesday morning.
DiBernardo, an FDIC instructor, was one of six firefighters forced to jump from the top floor of a burning building on East 178th Street during a winter blizzard in January 2005. Illegal partitions installed in some of the apartments blocked access to the fire escapes, as a WPIX article recounted (http://bit.ly/sFdSVJ). Two firefighters were killed in the incident; another firefighter died in Brooklyn that same morning. DiBernardo’s injuries forced him to retire.
Read more about the “Black Sunday” incident in the NIOSH report here: http://1.usa.gov/slNQNy
“Black Sunday” bail out video: http://bit.ly/vw2Tx2
“Joey was one of our instructors, a close friend, and an important part of FDNY history,” Fire Engineering Editor in Chief Bobby Halton said. “The Fire Engineering family extends our condolences to his family and friends.”
