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by The Eyewitness News Investigators
(New York-WABC) — Firefighters are taking action to protect their lives. Many have given up on the city and decided to buy their own personal safety ropes. It's an Eyewitness News Investigators exclusive.
Just weeks after two firefighters jumped to their deaths, the FDNY is promising to issue ropes to New York's bravest. Our investigation has found firefighters are not waiting anymore, and sales of safety ropes are soaring.
Jim Hoffer joins us with more.
It's been four years since the department supplied safety ropes, so what's a few more months of waiting? Well, some New York firefighters - scarred by the tragic Bronx blaze - are acting now and paying for their own rope rather than go to one more fire without one.
A New York City firefighter showed us the rope he bought four years ago when the warranty on the fire department-issued ropes expired. Requesting that he not be identified, this veteran firefighter told us how he and his colleagues used their own money to replace their ropes when the department failed to issue new ones.
Firefighter: "We all got together and bought one big spool of it and cut into smaller pieces that each of us could carry."
Jim Hoffer: "You had to equip yourself with this basic staple of firefighting?
Firefighter: "Yes."
After last month's Bronx fire, in which two firefighters without ropes jumped to their deaths, the department is promising to re-issue personel safety ropes.
But once again, firefighters are not waiting. Orders for escape ropes at a online fire equipment company has soared since the Bronx blaze.
Don Colarusso, All Hands Fire Equipment: "Its been a very dramatic increase from our normal flow of these things going out the door."
Jim Hoffer: "How many would you say in the last 10 days of these harness systems?
Don Colarusso: "40 or 50."
Jim Hoffer: "And usually it would be how many in a week and a half?
Don Colarusso: "Maybe 5 or 10 in the same normal period."
A firefighter's internet chat room offers further proof that New York's bravest are taking it upon themselves to get rope. One firefighter writes: "I think it is a shame we need to buy our own equipment, but I want to go home to my wife and kids after the fire."
Another states: "Buy your own rope because you'll probably be retired before the department comes through on this."
Eyewitness News has learned that last year the department did extensive testing of a rope system called Lifecender. It weighs less than three pounds and can be deployed in seconds.
Jim McKenna, Chicago firefighter: "It's clean, easy, you don't need any assistance."
Sources tell us Lifecender passed the department's rigorous safety tests, but the FDNY never moved forward on it or any of the many rope systems available.
Firefighter: "I think it comes down to money, we could save a couple million dollars and put it toward something else."
Late this afternoon the department told us that money had nothing to do with this but rather that the ropes were too heavy, too cumbersome. On buying their own ropes a spokesman tell us that firefighters should refrain from using equipment if it has not been tested by the department.
They also say that the department is moving forward on evaluating several rope systems but we've learned that most of the men and women on the rescue squads have already gone out and bought their ropes.
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