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NEW YORK (CBS) Tensions between elite police and fire units aired for the second time in two weeks as fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta accused police of endangering a submerged fire rescue diver with a recklessly tossed grappling hook.
The diver was hunting for a lost swimmer in the water below the Pulaski Bridge in Queens on Wednesday evening when a police scuba unit arrived on the scene, fire officials said.
Firefighters from Rescue Co. 4, which lost 7 members on Sept. 11, warned police not to toss a grappling hook and rope used to guide their own divers because the fire diver was in the water, according to a fire captain's written account of the incident.
A police officer told firefighters they should shut up, according to the account. He tossed the hook, and the rope attached to it dislodged Firefighter William Murphy's facemask, briefly cutting his oxygen supply, fire officials said.
Murphy readjusted his facemask but swallowed a small amount of water and became entangled in the rope, according to the account. Another firefighter disentangled him when he surfaced, the account said.
Following standard procedure, firefighters handed over control of the operation to police divers, who eventually recovered the body of 54-year-old Fredrick Darling, of Long Island City, police said.
If firefighters' initial accounts prove accurate, Scoppetta said, "This was so dangerous an incident that it could have resulted in serious injury to our firefighter who was engaged in a rescue operation."
"We were there first. We were doing what we were supposed to do, and then the subsequent events after the police arrived is what gave rise to what we think was a dangerous situation."
Police officials said they were taken aback by the fire department's vehement reaction and Scoppetta's highly unusual public criticism of the police.
Scoppetta and police Commissioner Ray Kelly have described their relationship as amicable and productive, often in response to criticism that their departments do not sufficiently coordinate emergency response tactics, particularly given the threat of a major terrorist attack.
Scoppetta has been a vocal supporter of an incident command system that uses written protocols to establish the chain of command at incidents ranging from pinned motorists to drownings. Kelly has been cool to the idea.
The fire commissioner made an unusually forceful call Thursday for the departments to sign written protocols and said he expects them to agree soon.
Asked about the incident at an unrelated press conference, Kelly said firefighters did not complain about police tactics immediately after the rescue. The commissioner said he was only informed of the incident Thursday morning and instructed the office of his chief of patrol to investigate it.
"It obviously is a very serious charge," Kelly said. "There was no indication there was anything out of the ordinary."
Kelly and Scoppetta downplayed inter-department tensions late last month after a member of the police department's elite Emergency Service Unit arrested a member of Rescue Co. 4 as tempers flared during the extraction of a burglary suspect from a Queens restaurant chimney.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the commissioners to City Hall to discuss the June 27 spat, and aides described him as "deeply concerned" about the Wednesday incident. Kelly should relay the results of an internal investigation within several days, the aides said.
Bloomberg spokesman Ed Skyler said both commissioners have been told to impress upon members of their departments that such behavior is "completely intolerable."
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