62 Watts St Fire - FDNY FF Christopher J Siedenburg E 24 LODD 3/29/1994

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FDNY Fire Service Line of Duty Death​

March 29, 1994 - LODD
FF Christopher J Siedenburg
Engine 24 (Detailed Ladder 5)
New York Fire Department. Brooklyn, New York





Christopher John Siedenburg was a firefighter for New York City Fire Department Engine Company 24 from September 1991 until he died a day after the Watts Street Fire that killed Firefighter James "Jimmy" F. Young on March 28, 1994. The commanding officer Captain John Joseph Drennan, Jr. survived the fire, but died in May as a result of burn injuries.

Christopher was a 1987 graduate of Monsignor Farrell High School in Staten Island.




RIP. Never forget.

 

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Christopher Siedenburg, Class of 1987

"No matter what happens, this is still the greatest job in the world - helping people." That is what 25-year-old Chris Siedenburg told the emergency medical technician en-route to Cornell University Burn Center after sustaining injuries while battling a fire at 62 Watts Street in Manhattan on March 28, 1994. Chris died the following day.

The Watts Street Fire, as it is known throughout the FDNY and fire services around the world, also claimed the lives of Captain John Drennan and Firefighter James Young. The three men were searching for residents of the building who were reportedly trapped by the fire.

A lifelong resident of Great Kills and a parishioner of St. Clare's, Chris saw fighting fires as the finest expression of his greatest goal, helping people. He graduated from Monsignor Farrell in 1987 and was a member of the band and the stage crew. He also competed in intramural football, basketball, and bowling.

Chris also belonged to the Volunteer Heart Resuscitation Unit of Staten Island (VHRU) and trained as a State Emergency Medical Technician. The many hours that he devoted to the VHRU each week earned him both awards and recognition.

As soon as he was eligible, Chris entered the FDNY training program. After passing the written test, he achieved a perfect score on the highly challenging physical exam. On September 8, 1991, he became a New York City Firefighter, and was assigned to Engine 24 in Greenwich Village. He continued to volunteer with the VHRU on his days off.

On the night of March 28, 1994, Chris was working in Ladder Company 5 (housed with Engine 24). Shortly after 9pm, they received a call for a report of heavy smoke and sparks from a chimney of a three-story apartment building at 62 Watts Street. Working as the inside team of the second due truck company, Captain John Drennan, accompanied by Firefighters Siedenburg and James Young, went to the second floor (above the fire) to begin a search of the upper floors. As they conducted their search for victims, they were trapped by an explosion and rapid fire progression from the first floor apartment up the common stairwell.

Both Chris and Firefighter Young succumbed to their injuries within 24 hours. Captain John Drennan passed away 40 days later.

In 2001, Siedenburg Park on Greaves and Dewey Avenues on Staten Island was dedicated to celebrate Chris Siedenburg's life and remember his courage and his generosity of spirit.

Chris was posthumously inducted into the Monsignor Farrell Alumni Hall of Fame Wall of Valor in 2016.

 

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Siedenburg Park (Staten Island)​

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• This park honors Christopher John Siedenburg (1969-1994) a dedicated Staten Island fireman. A lifelong resident of Great Kills, he saw fighting fires as the finest expression of his greatest goal, helping people. Throughout his time at Monsignor Farrell High School and his two years at the College of Staten Island, Siedenburg worked as a newspaper carrier, restaurant worker, lifeguard, and at several other jobs. He then joined the Volunteer Heart Resuscitation Unit of Staten Island (VHRU) and trained as a State Emergency Medical Technician. The many hours that he devoted to the VHRU each week earned him both awards and recognition.
  As soon as he was eligible, Siedenburg entered the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) training program. After passing the written test, he achieved a perfect score on the highly challenging physical tests. On September 8, 1991, he became a New York City firefighter assigned to Engine 24 in Greenwich Village. He continued to volunteer with the VHRU on his days off.
  This dedicated man had only been on the job for two and a half years when he was badly injured in a SOHO fire on March 28, 1994. The EMT who transported Siedenburg to the Cornell Burn Center later told his family that despite severe pain from his burns, Christopher had said that “being a firefighter is the greatest job in the world, helping people.” He died the next day at age 25. Siedenburg Park on Greaves and Dewey Avenues was named in 2001 to celebrate and remember his courage and his generosity of spirit.
  The park, formerly known as Evergreen Park, was created in 1982 as the result of a land exchange deal between the City and the Arthur Walkill Corporation of real estate developers. The company provided the land and a $75,000 trust fund to be used for its maintenance in exchange for another City-owned parcel of land elsewhere on the island.
  Through an arrangement with Parks, the Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences managed this property, providing educational programs as well as security for the park until 1989. Since then, Parks has been responsible for all maintenance. Bird watchers and hikers alike appreciate the site’s varied topography and diversity of wetland wildlife, while researchers and scientists benefit from the site’s unspoiled natural environment.
  The parkland sustains a broad assortment of wetland wildlife in both ponds and reedy swamps. At its entrance, the park welcomes visitors with many beautiful, full-grown junipers and a variety of evergreen shrubs. The Greaves Avenue expanse overlooks the swamp which is home to the park’s many birds, among them great blue herons (ardea herodius), mallard ducks (anas platyrhynchos), egrets (casmerodius albus), green herons (butorides striatus), and red-winged blackbirds (agelaius phoeniceus).
  A large section of the park is covered by oak forest and hosts several varieties of ferns, pink-ladies-slipper orchids (cypripedium reginae), wild blueberries (vaccinium), azaleas and other, similar shrubs. Some evergreens and Red maples (acer rubrum) can also be found in this vast woodland and unique species to this park, such as royal ferns (osmunda regalis), netted chain ferns (woodwardia), and Indian cucumber roots (medeola virginiana) are abundant.
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  Siedenburg Park ( Staten Island) – UrbanAreas.net

  This park honors Christopher John Siedenburg (1969-1994) a dedicated Staten Island fireman. A lifelong resident

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The Triple Firefighter Line Of Duty Deaths That Changed Us All – The Watts Street Fire in New York City​

March 29, 2016

All,
Sadly, some LODD’s are forgotten. Not in the sense that the loved ones who died in the Line of Duty are forgotten-but more in the sense of how and why they died. In this case, the loss has never been forgotten for a variety of reasons. Please take a moment to read this and pass it on as well.

Think of this fire the next time someone you know decides to not wear their PPE…understand that the horrible death of these Firefighters forced a significant change. Unfortunately, many LODD’s do not force change.

A wall of fire literally engulfed 3 FDNY Firefighters as they searched for residents feared trapped in a SoHo apartment building on March 28, 1994, initially killing one Firefighter (James Young, 31) and critically burning the other two. Young was the son of a retired battalion chief, Harold Young, and had two brothers in the department, Michael and Kenny.

His injured Brothers, Christopher J. Siedenburg, 25, of Staten Island, a firefighter since 1991, and Capt. John J. Drennan, 49, of Staten Island, a 26-year veteran, were taken to the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center burn unit. Siedenberg died the next day. Read on to learn about Captain Drennan's ordeal.

THE FIRE

The fire began on the first floor of the narrow building and at first remained there. The 3 Firefighters were in a second-floor hallway when horror struck. The fire blew out a door on the first floor and moved along the ceiling to the stairway and up to the second floor-the Firefighters were caught in the hallway.

They were initially going up to make a search for any occupants but all the residents had already safely left the building. The Firefighters were trapped when it flashed over and found in a room, that’s were other Firefighters found them

Firefighters Young and Siedenburg (who died the next day), part of Engine Company 24, and Captain Drennan, of Ladder Company 5 (suffered for 40 days) all would eventually die in the Line of Duty from this fire.

Captain Drennan lived 40 days after the fire, suffering from horrible 3rd & 4th degree burns but living through 10 skin graft operations, repeated infections, liver and kidney failures and other crises that he came close to outlasting, despite heavy odds against him. Despite 10 operations ranging from 3 to 12 hours each to apply grafts of skin from Captain Drennan’s chest, abdomen and scalp to the burned areas of his body — his back and both sides from head to toe and his upper extremities as well — the grafts were unable to establish much healthy new tissue.

Left behind was his wife, Vina Drennan. You know her name. She has become an unstoppable force related to Firefighter and civilian fire safety. She currently serve on the Board of Directors of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. At the time of his death, Captain Drennan left behind their kids as well-Jessica, 25, Adrian, 24, Justine, 19, and John, 14.

THE AFTERMATH

Vina, the wife of the Captain after those 40 days after suffering third- and fourth-degree burns in that Manhattan fire was awarded $2 million by the city. Drennan’s wife, Vina, sued, arguing that the City of New York failed to provide her 49-year-old husband with adequate protective gear – equipment that firefighters began using soon after this fire. Use of the protective bunker gear has led to an approximately 70% reduction in firefighters’ burns. It took 3 men burning to death for the action and funding to be “found”…that was their sacrifice.

Vina Drennan’s diary (link below) , in which she describes her husband’s heroic battle to live, as well as other memories of him, captured the hearts of America when it was published in the Daily News (link below). She became and continues as an outspoken advocate of fire safety after her husband’s death.

Families of the three victims also had sued the building’s landlord, Marc Chalom, and Kevin Keegan, head of Bailey Flooring, a company that had illegally stored furniture in a hallway, impeding the firefighters’ movements. The landlord and the flooring company agreed to pay a total of $4 million to the firefighters’ families, court records show. Of that, $3. 2 million went to Drennan’s estate.

Please take time today to learn about this fire and understand the sacrifice it took to get us – all Firefighters – eventually into bunker gear.

—THE FIRE REPORT/STUDY-INCLUDES GREAT DISCUSSION ITEMS:

http://www.cfbt-us.com/pdfs/cs_0021_new_york_ny.pdf

—VINA DRENNA’S DIARY ABOUT THE FIRE AND HER HUSBANDS BATTLE:

http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/diary-hero-widow-article-1.690627

—ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE FIRE:

http://www.firegroundleadership.com...m-the-fireground-watts-street-fire-fdny-1994/

Take Care. Be Careful. Pass It On.
BillyG

The Secret List 3/29/2016-1100 Hours

www.FireFighterCloseCalls.com

The Triple Firefighter Line Of Duty Deaths That Changed Us All - The Watts Street Fire in New York City | Firefighter Close Calls | Firefighter Close Calls is the home of the Secret List. The worlds most visited website focused exclusively on firefig

All, Sadly, some LODD's are forgotten. Not in the sense that the loved ones who died in the Line of Duty are forgotten-but more in the sense of how and why they died. In this case, the loss has never been forgotten for a variety of reasons. Please take a…

www.firefighterclosecalls.com