Vincent Dunn | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | American |
Known for | High-rise firefighting / rescue advocate |
Website | http://www.vincentdunn.com/ |
Vincent Joseph Dunn (born May 12, 1935) is a retired firefighter who served the New York Fire Department for 42 years, rising in rank to Commander of Division 3 (Midtown Manhattan). A longtime contributing editor to Firehouse Magazine, he is the author of nine books on firefighting and one memoir. He published two of his books before his 1999 retirement from New York City Fire Department: "Collapse of Burning Buildings: A Guide to Fireground Safety," 1988; and "Safety and Survival on the Fireground," 1992. His later books are "Command and Control of Fires and Emergencies," 2000; "Strategy of Firefighting," 2007; "Building Construction the Firefighters Battlespace," 2018; "Fire the Battlespace Enemy," 2020; Battlespace Combat," 2020; "Skyscraper Battlespace High-Rise Firefighting," published 2022, and “Battlespace Life-or-Death Decisions,” published 2023. All of Chief Dunn's books are available at vincentdunn.com. [1] [2]
Chief Dunn is an internationally recognized expert on high-rise firefighting, rescue, and building collapse. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency of the United States Department of Commerce, selected him to serve as a consultant in its investigation into the collapse of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers and 7 World Trade Center. [3]
He graduated from the two-year Queens Vocational Trade School and enlisted in the U.S. Navy when he was 17. He earned his GED while in the Navy and took the FDNY test 10 days after his honorable discharge at age 21. He joined the FDNY on Feb. 1, 1957. Later, at the urging of a fellow firefighter, he attended college on the GI Bill, becoming the first in his extended family to graduate from college. Chief Dunn earned an associate degree in Fire Administration in 1962, a bachelor's degree in sociology in 1976 and a master's degree in Urban Studies in 1979, all from Queens College, City University of New York.
As well as working for the FDNY and writing, Chief Dunn went on to teach. He was an instructor in the New York City Fire Department Division of Training from 1970 to 1974, teaching “Fire Prevention." He was an adjunct professor at Manhattan College from 1980 to 1983, teaching “Fire Protection Design," educating engineering students on the importance of fire loading design on concrete and fire resistant buildings, and how it related to structural integrity and building survivability. From 1984 to 1985 he was an instructor, at the National Fire Academy, teaching “Command and Control of Major Fires and Emergencies," and from 1998 to 2000, he was an adjunct professor at John Jay College, where he taught “Strategy of Firefighting."
In 1991, he was named "Man of the Year" by the Society of Fire Protection Engineers; in 1995 he received the Edward W. Whalen Award from the New York City Fire Safety Directors Association; he received Lifetime Achievement Awards in 1999 from Fire Engineering Magazine, in 2000 from the New York City Fire Department and in 2017 the Friends of Firefighters. In 2012, he received the FDNY Honor Legion Society Award.
Chief Dunn wrote in his August 2000 newsletter, "The best-kept secret in America's fire service is that firefighters cannot extinguish a fire in a 20- or 30,000-square-foot open floor area in a high-rise building. A fire company advancing a 2.5-inch hoseline with a 1.25-inch nozzle discharges only 300 gallons per minute and can extinguish only about 2,500 square feet of fire. The reach of the streams is only 50 feet. A modern open-floor office design, with cubicle work stations and dwarf partitions that do not extend to the ceiling, allows fire to spread throughout an entire 100 × 200-foot floor area. A fully involved, free burning 20,000-square-foot floor area cannot be extinguished by a couple of firefighters spraying a hose stream from a stairway. City managers and department chiefs will not admit this to the public if they want to keep their jobs. But every fireground commander knows this is a fact." [4]
In the Jan. 1, 2002, issue of Fire Engineering, an article co-written by Chief Dunn regarding the collapse of the three World Trade Center towers stated, "Now, with that understanding, you would think we would have the largest fire investigation in world history. You would be wrong. Instead, we have a series of unconnected and uncoordinated superficial inquiries. No comprehensive 'Presidential Blue Ribbon Commission'. No top-notch National Transportation Safety Board-like response. Ironically, we will probably gain more detailed information about the destruction of the planes than we will about the destruction of the towers. We are literally treating the steel removed from the site like garbage, not like crucial fire scene evidence." [5]
Communication problems and successes played an important role during the September 11 attacks in 2001 and their aftermath. Systems were variously destroyed or overwhelmed by loads greater than they were designed to carry, or failed to operate as intended or desired.
The September 11 attacks of 2001, in addition to being a unique act of terrorism, constituted a media event on a scale not seen since the advent of civilian global satellite links. Instant worldwide reaction and debate were made possible by round-the-clock television news organizations and by the internet. As a result, most of the events listed below were known by a large portion of the world's population as they occurred.
The New York City Fire Department, officially the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) is the full-service fire department of New York City, serving all five boroughs. The FDNY is responsible for fire suppression and fire prevention, and is a major provider of EMS services in New York City. Beyond fire suppression and EMS, the FDNY is responsible for a broad range of services, including technical rescue, CBRN defense, and structural collapse response and analysis. The FDNY is equipped with a wide variety of general-purpose and specialized fire apparatus to serve its varied missions.
The World Trade Center in New York City collapsed on September 11, 2001, as result of the Al-Qaeda attacks. Two commercial airliners hijacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists were deliberately flown into the Twin Towers of the complex, resulting in a total progressive collapse that killed almost 3000 people. It is the worst building collapse in history.
Firefighting is a profession aimed at controlling and extinguishing fire. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter or fireman. Firefighters typically undergo a high degree of technical training. This involves structural firefighting and wildland firefighting. Specialized training includes aircraft firefighting, shipboard firefighting, aerial firefighting, maritime firefighting, and proximity firefighting.
A PASS device, also known as a Distress Signal Unit (DSU) or ADSU, is a personal safety device used primarily by firefighters entering a hazardous or Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health (IDLH) environment such as a burning building. The PASS device sounds a loud (95 decibel) audible alert to notify others in the area that the firefighter is in distress. On a fireground, the sound of an activated PASS device indicates a true emergency and results in an immediate response to rescue the firefighter(s) in distress. In the United States, the National Fire Protection Association sets standards for PASS devices in NFPA 1982.
Firefighting jargon includes a diverse lexicon of both common and idiosyncratic terms. One problem that exists in trying to create a list such as this is that much of the terminology used by a particular department is specifically defined in their particular standing operating procedures, such that two departments may have completely different terms for the same thing. For example, depending on whom one asks, a safety team may be referred to as a standby, a RIT or RIG or RIC, or a FAST. Furthermore, a department may change a definition within its SOP, such that one year it may be RIT, and the next RIG or RIC.
The Deutsche Bank Building was a 39-story office building located at 130 Liberty Street in Manhattan, New York City, adjacent to the World Trade Center site. The building opened in 1974 and closed following the September 11 attacks in 2001, due to contamination that spread from the collapse of the South Tower. The structure was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, which also designed the Empire State Building.
Sally Regenhard is an American activist who has become one of the leading voices for the families of the victims of the September 11 attacks. A former long-time resident of Co-op City in The Bronx in New York City who has degrees in behavioral sciences and gerontology and has worked in the nursing home industry for over 20 years, Regenhard became an advocate for skyscraper safety after the death of her 28-year-old son, Christian, a probationary firefighter with the New York City Fire Department, who perished in the collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
The Charleston Sofa Super Store fire disaster occurred on the evening of June 18, 2007, in Charleston, South Carolina, and killed nine firefighters. This was the deadliest firefighter disaster in the US since the September 11 attacks. Though the fire was believed to have started in some discarded furniture in the loading dock area, the exact source of ignition remains undetermined.
Rudy Giuliani: Urban Legend is a video produced by the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF). On July 11, 2007, the IAFF released the 13-minute video in DVD format to fire departments across the U.S. The DVD outlines its complaints against Rudy Giuliani. It is critical of the 2008 Republican Party presidential candidate and former New York City mayor. As the video has been issued on a website, and not just DVD, it is classifiable as a viral video.
The 23rd Street Fire was an incident that took place in the Flatiron District neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on October 17, 1966. A group of firefighters from the New York City Fire Department responding to a fire at 7 East 22nd Street entered a building at 6 East 23rd Street as part of an effort to fight the fire. Twelve firefighters were killed after the floor collapsed, the largest loss of life in the department's history until the collapse of the World Trade Center in the September 11 attacks of 2001.
Orio Joseph Palmer was a Battalion Chief of the New York City Fire Department who died while rescuing civilians trapped inside the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Palmer led the team of firefighters that reached the 78th floor of the South Tower, the floor where the plane had struck the building.
The September 11 attacks of 2001 caused the deaths of 2,996 people, including 2,977 victims and 19 hijackers who committed murder–suicide. Thousands more were injured, and long-term health effects have arisen as a consequence of the attacks. New York City took the brunt of the death toll when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan were attacked, with an estimated 1,600 victims from the North Tower and around a thousand from the South Tower. Two hundred miles southwest in Arlington County, Virginia, another 125 were killed in the Pentagon. The remaining 265 fatalities included the ninety-two passengers and crew of American Airlines Flight 11, the sixty-five aboard United Airlines Flight 175, the sixty-four on American Airlines Flight 77 and the forty-four who boarded United Airlines Flight 93. The attack on the World Trade Center's North Tower single-handedly made 9/11 the deadliest act of terrorism in human history.
Firefighting in the United States dates back to the earliest European colonies in the Americas. Early firefighters were simply community members who would respond to neighborhood fires with buckets. The first dedicated volunteer fire brigade was established in 1736 in Philadelphia. These volunteer companies were often paid by insurance companies in return for protecting their clients.
New York City Fire Department Ladder Company 3, also known as Ladder 3, is a fire company and one of two ladder companies in the New York City Fire Department's (FDNY) 6th Battalion, 1st Division. It is housed at 108 E. 13th St., along with Battalion Chief 6, and has firefighting stewardship over a several square block area of Manhattan’s East Village. The company was created on September 11, 1865, and is one of New York’s oldest ladder companies.
The NIST World Trade Center Disaster Investigation was a report that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conducted to establish the likely technical causes of the three building failures that occurred at the World Trade Center following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The report was mandated as part of the National Construction Safety Team Act, which was signed into law on October 1, 2002 by President George W. Bush. NIST issued its final report on the collapse of the World Trade Center's twin towers in September 2005, and the agency issued its final report on 7 World Trade Center in November 2008.
Joseph W. Pfeifer is the First Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY). He retired as an Assistant Chief of the department in 2018 and was appointed to his current civilian role in early 2023. He was the first fire chief to respond to the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks. He is also the founder of the department's Center for Terrorism and Disaster Preparedness (CTDP).
7 World Trade Center was an office building constructed as part of the original World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The tower was located on a city block bounded by West Broadway, Vesey Street, Washington Street, and Barclay Street on the east, south, west, and north, respectively. It was developed by Larry Silverstein, who held a ground lease for the site from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and designed by Emery Roth & Sons. It was destroyed in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.