As this May approached, Association of BellTel Retirees Chairman Thomas Steed traveled to the site of the 1975 New York Telephone Company Fire, accompanied by Retired FDNY firefighter Dan Noonan, a member of the first fire company at that horrific fire scene, along with 9/11 community legal advocate Michael Barasch to discuss toxic connections.
The three were there for a discussion of what took place, as the 5-alarm fire raged for nearly a full day, requiring the work of 699 firefighters to extinguish, and the months-and-months of clean up and restoration work by some 4,000 members of the Telephone Company workforce.
For many decades now, FF. Dan Noonan has been the leading advocate shining an exceptionally bright spotlight on the toxic fire and its aftermath, not only on all who were there but also those who lived in the surrounding community.
Just days following our news deadline, FF. Noonan, Mr. Steed, and Mr. Barasch will also lead a webinar on the health connections of the 4,700 who were there, as well as the emergency response and restoration led by a combined Verizon, AT&T, and Empire City Subway workforce in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York City.
9/11 was a toxic worksite larger than them all.
Federal Concerns About Toxicity of Burn Pits:
White House officials kicked off 2022 focused intently on the Federal Government’s dire concerns about military burn pits and the negative heath consequences of their toxicity on American soldiers. This is a subject very relevant to our community too.
The Verizon Building at 140 West Street was immediately adjacent to 5 World Trade Center, which collapsed in the aftermath of the September 2001 terrorist attacks. For countless months, underground fires at the WTC site raged, spewing toxins with a pH level the equivalency of Draino.
The NY Telephone Company Fire on February 17, 1975 was at a critical switching station at Second Avenue and 13th Street in Manhattan. Taking root several stories underground, the fire could not easily be extinguished.
Billions of feet of PVC cabling burned, filling the air with poisonous toxins that were ingested by 699 firefighters and some 4,000 Telephone Company staff. The FDNY’s Bureau of Health Services did affix what became known as, the “Red Star of Death” on each of the 699 firefighters’ personnel folders. According to Noonan, the average age of death for those firefighters was age 50.2, many of whom passed away due to throat cancers.
NY City to Remember & Memorialize:
On Saturday, May 21, 2022, FF. Noonan will be a guest speaker, alongside BellTel’s Tom Steed and the current FDNY Commissioner at the FDNY Training Academy at NY City’s Randall’s Island, as they unveil a new memorial to the sacrifice of the 699 Firefighters and the 4,000 Telephone Workers who tamed the fire and restored communications.
But in simply doing their jobs back in 1975, they put their own lives at risk. It took 47 long years for the City of New York to properly remember and recognize those who were there.
It is that very toxic legacy that spurs the Association of BellTel Retirees to speak up, not only for our 4,000 colleagues who were there in 1975, but also the many thousands of others from the Verizon, Empire City Subway, and AT&T work family who were exposed to toxic air while working in lower Manhattan during 2001 and 2002.
We encourage you to protect yourselves and protect your families. Many of those exposed to the toxins back in in 2001 and 2002, like those in 1975, never made the workplace connections to illnesses that they have suffered.
Let’s all learn from those mistakes of nearly 50 years ago. Like the firefighters who responded to the 9/11 attacks, members of our retiree community who were at the WTC site also have a right to register for free medical monitoring and compensation and should not miss out on the opportunity to do so.
If you are reading this after the May 19 webinar has taken place, we will do our best to also make it available for your viewing on the Association’s YouTube and other social media channels.
This article was first published in the Summer 2022 BellTel Newsletter.
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