2 firefighters feared dead after fire in an East Side deli
By Gene Warner
News Staff Reporter
Updated: August 24, 2009, 9:54 AM / 2 comments
Two Buffalo firefighters ? and possibly one civilian ? are trapped and feared dead after an early morning fire on Genesee Street on the city's East Side.
Reports from the scene indicated that the two firefighters may have fallen through the first floor while searching for a civilian victim inside the two-story brick building at Genesee and Wende streets.
"The mood is very somber," Mayor Byron W. Brown said at the scene shortly after 8 a.m. "Everybody is extremely concerned, hoping and praying for a miracle. Some of the firefighters said there's always hope."
Firefighters responded to a 3:49 a.m. alarm at 1815 Genesee St., one block west of Bailey Avenue. A sign on the building indicated it housed Super Speedy Deli.
Black smoke was still pouring out the top of the brick building after 8 a.m. today, more than four hours after the fire was reported. At about 8:45 a.m., flames rekindled on the second floor of the burned-out brick building, bringing a second ladder and bucket, from Truck 14, to join the firefighters from truck 6, who were already pouring water on the fire.
Grief was etched on the faces of more than a dozen off-duty firefighters who stood near the still-burning building, most dressed in shorts and blue Buffalo Fire Department t-shirts or sweatshirts.
The building is almost directly across the street from Wende Street, where Buffalo Firefighter Mark P. Reed lost his right leg battling an arson fire in June 2007. Reed also suffered a skull fracture, seven broken ribs, a punctured lung and a brain bleed when a brick chimney toppled on his head and body.
After dawn, a legion of top city officials converged on the scene, including Brown, Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson and Deputy Commissioner Daniel Derenda. A group of civilians believed to be family members were being comforted at mid-morning by fire and police officials as they gathered near the scene.
Shortly before 9:30 a.m., those families were ushered closer to the fire scene at the same time that firefigthers donned their helmets and began entering the building.
About 10 minutes later, firefighters, off-duty firefighters and civilians standing inside the police cordon took off their helments or hats in respect to the fallen firefighters.
Brown and other top city officials refused to comment on reports of fatalities inside the building.
"This underscores how difficult and dangerous the work is that our firefighters do," the mayor said at the scene. "Every day they go to work, they're heroes."
Officials had no comment this morning on the cause of the fire.
gwarner@buffnews.com