Tag: Ladder Co. 105

Firefighter John Chipura

John Chipura, 39, was a Marine from 1980 to 1987. He survived the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut but it was three days before he could get word to his family that he was safe. For them, 9/11 was eerily familiar, but this time no phone call ever came.

He spent 12 years in the NYPD, finishing up as a Detective before he made the move to the FDNY in 1998, following the footsteps of his father. His brother said, “He always thought people call the Police Department when there’s a problem, to get somebody bad, but you call the Fire Department when people needed help.” He was recently back in Engine 219 after rotations elsewhere.

Chipura’s sister worked on the 69th floor of Tower One. Although he kept trying to reach her that morning and couldn’t, she safely evacuated.  He was getting married in just six weeks and that had been his main focus for the past few months. That morning he was sent to respond with Ladder 105, while the others on Engine 219 responded to a call downtown Brooklyn before going to lower Manhattan.

January 22, 2015
Firefighter Frank Palombo

Frank Palombo, 46, joined the FDNY in 1979.  In 1985, Palombo and his wife both joined the Neocatechumenal Way and then had ten children over the next 14 years. He believed each of them was an “undeserved gift from God.” Very involved with his faith, he loved saving bodies by being a firefighter as much as he loved saving souls through his faith.

January 21, 2015
Firefighter Dennis O’Berg

Dennis O’Berg, 28, a probie, was only six weeks out of the Fire Academy and married just 11 months. He was an accountant for a year before changing his mind and entering his father’s profession. He loved his new job.  His dad, a lieutenant, was a 31-year FDNY vet. He was also called to the WTC but arrived in time to see the South Tower collapsing in front of him as they came down Liberty Street. Several hours later, after putting out a fire in the Presidential a block away, other firefighters led him to the ruins of Ladder 105 under the Marriott. “It’s not supposed to happen that way,” he thought – son before the father. So he retired. He spent the next many many months working the pile. Dennis was never found.

January 20, 2015
Firefighter Henry Miller, Jr.

Henry Miller Jr., 52, was with Ladder 105 for 28 years. Three separate times he declined to retire because he loved being a firefighter. Just as he had for the 1993 WTC bombing, Miller chauffered 105’s hook and ladder to the WTC that morning and parked it in front of the Marriott Hotel. That’s where it was later found, flattened by the debris.

He had studied to be an accountant but it wasn’t long before Miller knew he’d really rather follow his father, a 38-year vet, into the FDNY.

Just 7 years before 9/11 he had married his best friend’s sister – someone he had known since she was 17. They were casually friendly for years and then one year things changed. When they married, he gained a ready-made family. Rumor has it he was actually really thinking about retiring in another 2 years.

January 19, 2015
Firefighter Thomas R. Kelly

Thomas R. Kelly’s father and brother were also members of the FDNY. Kelly himself was an EMT before joining up.

With a public moniker of the “Dean Street Heroes,” Ladder 105 in Park Slope is known within the department as “West Point” because of how many of its members rise up through the ranks. Thomas Kelly was to be one of them. He was posthumously promoted to Lieutenant that December.

He had taken up bicycle riding with a passion in recent years. In 2000 he completed a 375-mile ride from New York to Boston for AIDS research. He had been planning a bicycle tour in France.  Kelly and other members of Ladder 105 were last seen entering the South Tower shortly before it collapsed. Their remains have not yet been found.

January 18, 2015
Capt. Vincent Brunton

For Captain Vincent Brunton, 43, 1979 was an auspicious year. He got married, joined the FDNY and became a father for the first time.

Commissioner Von Essen said at Vinnie’s funeral that “only exceptional captains went back to lead the company from which they were promoted.” He was referring to Ladder 105.  Brunton’s second job for decades was serving up beers at Farrell’s, the neighborhood tavern that serves as an informal town hall in Windsor Terrace. “He took the fire test, passed, went on the job, got married, had kids and kept working here all these years, even as he rose in the FDNY to lieutenant and then captain,” said one of Farrell’s co-owners. “He was always a perfect gentleman behind the bar. A sweeter guy you never met. Tough, funny, loyal, brave, honest. What could I say? I’d have trusted him with my life.”

Vinnie’s brother is an FDNY lieutenant and a piper in the Emerald Society Pipe and Drums Corps that played at his memorial. “Vinnie was a quiet guy who ran every day, kept in great physical shape, and rarely had an unkind word for anybody,” he said. “I will miss him every day of my life.”

January 17, 2015