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by ROLANDO F. PUJOL and WILLIAM MURPHY
The FDNY has pulled its new personal safety rope system just one week after distribution began because one of the cords became frayed after getting jammed while in use by a firefighter during a training exercise, the department announced Tuesday night.
Some 250 firefighters out of the 11,000-strong force had already received the heavily tested equipment, which was developed in part by firefighters in the aftermath of a January fire in the Bronx that killed two of their own, who will be remembered today at an annual memorial service. The ropes have been ordered to be taken out of service pending an investigation, the department said.
The firefighter was performing a slide at the department's Training Academy on Randalls Island when the rope became frayed after getting jammed inside a mechanical lowering device. The rope did not break, the department said, and the firefighter was supported by a second safety line. He was never in danger, the department said.
The lightweight, Kevlar ropes were introduced after an eight-month testing process in the aftermath of the fire, in which two firefighters without ropes were killed in the line of duty after jumping from a burning tenement.
Two others survived because a rope one of them was carrying broke their fall. However, the ropes at the time were not required equipment.
"A great deal of research and evaluation has gone into developing this system and we want to be certain that the equipment we provide our firefighters is fail-safe," Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said in a statement. "The system we provide to our members must allow for a number of variables so that we are confident it is the best piece of equipment available to protect our firefighters."
The fire department's move to suspend distribution is precautionary, while the department, the maker of the mechanical device and a consultant on the project work to troubleshoot the equipment and the incident.
The department this morning is holding its 98th annual Firefighters Memorial Service on the Upper West Side, in which the firefighters who died in the Bronx that day, Lt. Curtis Meyran, 46, and firefighter John Bellew, 37, will be remembered.
The ceremony will also memorialize firefighter Richard Sclafani, 37, who died the same day in a Brooklyn fire.
Also being honored is firefighter Christian Engeldrum, 39, who was killed last year in a roadside attack in Baghdad.
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