by STEVE DUNLEAVY
RETIRED firefighter Billy Murphy talked softly in this beautiful church in The Bronx called St. Joseph's — but what he said sounded like a thunderstorm. "I was with Larry that night 25 years ago . . . I live it over and over again," said Billy. It was June 27, 1980, when Rescue 3 firefighters Larry Fitzpatrick and Gerry Frisby died in a rope disaster in Harlem. "Gerry was trapped on the seventh floor and about to jump. I was on the roof with my personal rope and Larry had the rescue rope which went 150 feet," Billy was saying with a shudder. He helped Frisby out the window and handed him off to Fitzpatrick. "The rope broke immediately as Larry was trying to rescue our brother." It was a memorial service where an Irish tenor, Firefighter Danny Walker, sang hymns and a priest by the name of Joe Hoffman told the congregation that Larry and Gerry died "saving people they didn't know." In that congregation, I met Dan Fitzpatrick, Larry's son. "I was six months old when it happened, but I've known my father through the guys who worked with him," Danny said. When it happened, his brother, Andrew, was 2. His sister, Kate, was 4; Patrick, 6; Erin, 8; Larry, 9; Shannon, 11 and Tara, 12. And there is the widow, Eileen, who brought up these beautiful kids. Eight kids with no dad. At the service, Jeff Cool and Joey DiBernardo prayed. They're two of the survivors of Jan. 23, "Black Sunday." Cops and firefighters still haven't gotten a raise. At least firefighters will get ropes by September, or so the city says. Quite obviously firefighters and cops don't need a real raise unless you believe Father Joe Hoffman, who said: "They gave their lives so others could be saved . . . saving people they didn't know. "They know, when I respond to that call, that alarm, I may not come back from it." Greater love hath no man than he . . . well you know the end of that sentence.
 |
