FDNY slammed after Black burn victims of apartment blaze left in lobby without treatment: 'Every second counts'
The New York Fire Department has been slammed after disturbing surveillance footage showed their firefighters dragging the bodies of three severely-burned victims to the lobby of a Brooklyn building and leaving them there without medical treatment for several minutes. The incident unfolded after the firefighters responded to reports of a blaze at a building at 1225 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn Heights at 6:52 am on July 22, according to the New York Daily News. After reaching the scene, they rescued Joshua Scurry, 25, his mother Tawanna Scurry, 53, and his girlfriend Tiffany Jemmott, 24, and pulled them out of their burning apartment but then inexplicably left them without any care.
In a video shot on the CCTV cameras inside the building, around a dozen firefighters could be seen moving in and out of the lobby. At around 7:03 am, two firefighters carry Tawanna, who is unconscious and badly-burned, down the stairs and leave her body on the wet floor of the lobby close to the entrance. She's left there as other firefighters step around her and go about their work, with no one attempting to provide any medical assistance.
A few minutes later, a firefighter is seen dragging Josh's body down the stairs, over the fire hoses and through the water using webbing tied under his arms. Tiffany is the last to be brought out and is also set down on the lobby floor, partially on top of a hose. It was at 7:06 am -- three minutes after Tawanna was placed on the ground, and four minutes after EMTs and medical personnel arrived at 7:02 am -- that a stretcher is finally brought into the building and the 53-year-old is carried outside to an ambulance.
While one month has passed since the horrific fire, Tawanna is still in intensive care at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell because of her extensive injuries and questions have been asked about the delay between her being rescued and receiving aid.
Former FDNY firefighters have come out to criticize the fighters for being too slow to seek help for the victims. "It's a medical emergency - every second counts," one retired officer told the Daily News. "I see no effort to get a bag on them, or do any kind of CPR, and where is EMS? They should be brought outside to wherever EMS is. You don't sit back and wait. They should have been ready to carry them outside."
Khalid Baylor, president of the Vulcan Society, the association of Black firefighters, said the incident showed a lack of care for Black lives. "The people who are supposed to save lives are treating these Black lives as if they don't matter, dragging and dropping them," he said. "The FDNY can and must do better. This incident needs to be investigated, studied and learned from so this does not happen again."
However, the FDNY has defended its firefighters' actions and insisted that everything was done according to established protocols. "The firefighters did go get the equipment, they did take care of them, and as a result, all three of those folks are alive,' FDNY Chief of Operations Thomas Richardson said.