Today marks the three-year anniversary of “Black Friday,” when deadly fires in the Bronx and Brooklyn took the lives of New York City firefighters. The Bronx fire killed 37-year-old John Bellew of Pearl River, a father of four, and Lt. Curtis Meyran of Malverne. Four were injured, including Jeffery Cool of Garnerville.

The firefighters were forced to jump from the fourth floor as flames shot around them — trapped in a carved-up apartment, with walls put in unexpected places. The building’s two tenants, the landlord and the building owner’s attorney were charged with second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment. Prosecutors contend that their actions of illegally subdividing the apartment to squeeze in more people led to the fatalities. The trial is ongoing.

The issue of illegal apartments, and breaking building codes, is a big one here in suburbia as well. It is a dangerous practice for firefighters who expect on thing — a hallway or room — and find a wall. In 2007, Moleston Fire District moved to have a public hearing on removing the village of New Square from its jurisdiction, a dramatic move to call attention to a plethora of violations. As a March 2007 editorial explained: ”(Firefighters) have time and time again found themselves entering what they believe is a single- or two-family home for it only to turn out to house a business, or extra apartments or illegal living space on a third or fourth floor. These are real dangers for firefighters who can’t anticipate a floor plan, or may be met with chemicals used in a basement manufacturing facility.” The issue there has improved, but in every town, illegal conversions are a risk to firefighters’ safety.

Testimony from the Bronx fire trial (taking place in state Supreme Court in the Bronx and reported by various New York City media) is heartbreaking. Cool recounted the heat, and the chaos, in a Jan. 13 court appearance. “You could see it burning through on us. It was starting to get like hell in there. It was hell,” he said during testimony, according to NY1. (Here’s a link to the story that includes video of Jeff Cool.)

Cool was able to lower another firefighter and himself some with the rope he had purchased at a trade show, but still fell a great distance and broke about as many bones as a person can. He has retired from the FDNY due to his injuries.