July 28, 2024 • 31 mins
Date Aired: July 28, 2024
This is an interview I did 3 years ago with retired NYC Firefighter Danny Noonan, who just died of cancer. He not only volunteered on the pile right after 9/11 (after he was just diagnosed with leukemia) he was one of 699 FDNY’ers who fought the NY Telephone Company fire in 1975, which had hundreds collapsing at the scene. A harbinger to 9/11, hundreds later got killer cancers. Danny never stopped advocating, not just for the firefighters, but for the community, which was also exposed to the toxins. All Danny wanted was a plaque at the East Village site, to acknowledge what happened. We are still waiting.
This is an interview I did 3 years ago with retired NYC Firefighter Danny Noonan, who just died of cancer. He not only volunteered on the pile right after 9/11 (after he was just diagnosed with leukemia) he was one of 699 FDNY’ers who fought the NY Telephone Company fire in 1975, which had hundreds collapsing at the scene. A harbinger to 9/11, hundreds later got killer cancers. Danny never stopped advocating, not just for the firefighters, but for the community, which was also exposed to the toxins. All Danny wanted was a plaque at the East Village site, to acknowledge what happened. We are still waiting.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio,Conversations about issues that matter. Here's your
host, three time Grasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein. This week we lost
retired FDN wire Danny Noonan at seventysix to cancer. Now Danny was certified
with more than one nine to elevencancers many years twenty six years before September
(00:24):
eleventh, there was another toxic firein New York City, really a harbinger
of September eleventh. It was nineteenseventy five. It was the winter when
there was a fire in the NewYork Telephone building at Second Avenue and thirteenth
(00:47):
Street in the East Village, sixhundred and ninety nine. FDN wires responded.
No one died fortunately that day becauseof the toxins in the fire in
the building. Twenty years later,FDN wires started coming down with cancer as
(01:14):
a result, and again this wasbefore September eleventh. Unfortunately, one of
those suffering from cancer as a result, he was twenty five when he responded
to this fire. Danny Noonan iswith us today. First of all,
I'm so sorry for what you're goingthrough. Well, thank you very much
(01:34):
for having you. It's quite anhonor to be on the show. And
thanks again. Well, thank you. Tell us about take us back to
that day actually that night. Wow, we got to go back sometime here
nineteen hundred and seventy five. Iwas a new firefightum, just had two
years of what we call on thejob, so two years on the job,
(01:59):
and was one night in the middleof February, towards the end of
February, and we got the alarmcame ore on about a little bit after
midnight and it said respond to theNew York Telephone Exchange. And that building
is located on Second Avenue in Eastthirteenth Street in Manhattan, as you said
(02:20):
before. And we pulled up tothe scene, and we were unaware of
what was going on. We justsaw all these numerous telephone employees running from
the building, just vomiting in thestreets on all fours, grasping for air
and everything. We were completely unawareof what the situation was. So under
(02:42):
the leadership of my lieutenant and wewent in and on these display panels,
we met telephone company employees who said, listen, we have a very serious
fire down in the sub cellar vaults, which are some three stars underground and
we're like whaa. And our missionwas to identify the location of the fire
(03:08):
and to make sure all of thoseemployees were out of the building. And
that was our task, and youdid that. We did that, and
we did that. We as wemade ourselves. We went down floor by
floor and we got to what's knownas the sub cell of vaults Shelley.
(03:32):
The visibility there became like close tozero. We couldn't see each other.
We just fell for one another andwe went down and we're trying to discover
exactly where that fire originated from.It was so dark, so crazy.
All of the polyethylene that was onthe PBC piping is melting and it's now
(03:57):
covering the floor in our boots startingto adhere to it. So we were
in this sub subseellar of this crazyreality down there, and we found nobody,
found no fire. Our lieutenant andthe chief would be best if we
back out to the lobby. Butin the intrum, they had sent new
(04:20):
firefighters down the staircase to assist us, and we became entangled in the staircase,
and then we started to lose ourair supply, and by this time
now the alarms are being transmitted,and we developed to it is now over
six hundred firefighters on seat six hundredand ninety nine of us. And we
(04:44):
still went on all night long andwent on for seventeen hours. And the
smoke that was pushing out of thiswas like having razor blades in your throat.
It's unlike anything we have ever comeacross in my time on the department,
which was limited. But these veteranfirefighters who have been in the East
(05:08):
Village, have been in Manhattan,have been in the Bronx, has never
ever seen anything like this. Andthen firefighters started to get sick and down
we went one after another, oneafter another continuously like dominos, and we're
filling up Bellevue firefighters are becoming unconscious. They're removing them to Bellevue Hospital.
(05:31):
We have members of the Communication Workersof America who worked in the building.
They're are all falls, they canmove, and then there's people in their
community on East thirteenth Street or whatever. Several hours into the fire, we
recognized our safety battime recognized that therewas a moving crack in the east wall,
(05:56):
and this is an eleven story building, so we thought the best to
evacuate everybody on East thirteenth Street andall those walk up tenements there. But
as a sign of the times,Shelley people didn't want to leave because they
were fearful that their apartments were beingripped off if they left. But we
(06:19):
were highly concerned for them, andeventually they fled the building holding towels over
their mouth. And then also babies. We were concerned about babies whose respiratory
track has not yet fully been developed, and we wanted them out of the
destructions and out of harm's way ofthis massive exposure of this deadly toxic smoke.
(06:47):
So seventeen hours later it was declaredunder control, but it burnt for
days. It was relatious. Wereyou taken to the hospital that day?
I wanted to go to the hospital. I had difficulty in breathing. They
told me Dan Firefighting owner. Hesays, every hospital here in the whole
(07:11):
downtown Manhattan area is filled up.They opened up this book and they said
you live in the Bell Harbor sectionof Rockaway Beach. I said I do,
And he said the closest hospital foryou, And they gave me the
name of my local hospital and toldme to go report there. This is
how widespread, how jam packed.Every facility they closed, Starvedston High School,
(07:38):
Starvedston High School before I moved downtownoccupied East fourteenth Street. Boy,
that's on irony now, isn't it? Yo? Yes? Really these folks.
So did you go to the hospitalin Bell Harbor. No? I
didn't. I decided to rough it. I was what I thought it was
(07:59):
a tough guy at twenty six yearsold. And then I went to the
fire Department Medical Division as soon asthey had an opening, which was wasn't
until two days later. Then Iwent in and they put me on medical
leave for two weeks, trying toget my respiratory system back on track.
But out of this six hundred andninety nine firefighter Shelley two one hundred and
(08:24):
thirty nine, when sick on thescene. This is when a firefighter goes
to the battalion, goes to themedical folks unseen and go I'm done.
I'm done. I can't breathe,I can't breathe. I get respiratory issues.
Something is seriously a mission. Twoone hundred and thirty nine firefighters did
(08:46):
this. Firefighters on all fours wereleaning up against every building all around the
neighborhood. What was burning was onebillion feet of PV that's PVC coding when
they put them around the cables.Now, eventually all the phones start to
(09:07):
go out in Lower Manhattan. Theseare all first of all the nine to
one one where you call in thatdies, that goes silent. Then block
by block by block, all theway going south to Wall Street, all
the phones in three hundred square blocksgoes silent. There's no phone sucks.
(09:33):
And this includes all these housing projects, This includes NYU and includes thousands.
It got so bad that this hadglobal financial implications. Nobody, none of
these merchants could be in contact withtheir suppliers, with their customers. You
(09:54):
got to remember this as a preemail error and everything was done via telephone,
via communication as such, and witheverything out of service for several weeks,
it became very chaotic. So itwas it had significant consequences to the
(10:15):
city, the country, and theglobal markets. For how long they the
telephone company which is now Verizon,was able to get restore service back.
I believe it was like five weeks, and they called it the Miracle on
(10:37):
Second Avenue. We called it theMount Saint Helen Is on East thirteenth Street.
That's you know the volcano that eruptedin Washington. Yeah, so that's
what we referred to. And itburnt and it went off for days and
days, and it was just wewere up against these times, these deadly
(11:01):
toxins, and it had a hellof an impact on the entire FDM line.
They had to mobilize five thousand membersof the Communication Workers of America from
all over the country to come inand begin restoration on this smoldering rooms,
(11:22):
the smoldering rooms that used to bethe telephone exchange on Second Avenue, and
they went in and it was stilland they took massive exposure to try to
get all these systems. They removedShelley one billion feet of this burnt polyvinal
(11:43):
chloride. Was an absolute disaster.And the folks in the community who surrounded
us by several blocks, they allhad all these different issues, and you
know, the Red Cross took overa local YMCA. We opened all these
different facilities. Salvation Army was wonderful, but this was frankly, if I
(12:07):
can succinctly put him as following nineto eleven, this is the most deadly
and coarsely as file in the historyof the fdmy of the New York City
Fire Department. I'm speaking with DannyNoonan. He is a retired FDN wire.
He was twenty six in nineteen seventyfive tending to the fire of the
(12:33):
New York Telephone Exchange, and ashe has been describing, hundreds of the
six hundred and ninety nine firefighters whoresponded became ill right on the scene,
just collapsing on the scene, takento hospital's telephone service knocked out. But
it didn't stop there. Now,when did you get back to work on
(12:56):
the FDNY Your health didn't problem wasback. I was back within a month.
But the irony was this was inlate February. In June, I
got laid off. It was thefinancial crisis of the city. You recall
the classic daily news headlines for thecity dropped dead while we suffered the concert
(13:22):
consequences of this. We had ninehundred firefighters who were laid off. Originally
it was eighteen hundred, brought backnine hundred. I believe there was twenty
seven hundred police officers who were laidoff as well. So my gratitude for
this was a pink slab and Iwas laid off for a year and a
half and then following this, Ishould say, in the following months,
(13:50):
all these firefighters from different firehouses.It's not my firehouse, which is just
down the block from collectively all throughoutthe city, but primary in the first
and second alarm assignings. We're startingto notice cancer in cancer months months,
(14:11):
months, months, months, ayear. I'd say most prevalent between a
year to two years. And thiscancer is manifesting himself in these young,
athletic, healthy firefighters. There's onefirefighter in my house. He was the
fallback on the football team. Hedevelops this crazy brain cancer with no family
(14:37):
history of it. He's got fourlovely daughters. Boom. Then we get
a phone call firefighter from the nextfirehouse. Another firefighter, another one that's
interstitial fibrosis. Everybody's coming down.Everybody's coming down with these multiple cancers from
this deadly exposure. We had tothis billion feet of PVC, and we
(15:00):
up against chemicals like chlorinated dioxen,the most deadly chemical known to man.
Card This is what we're fighting,this is what we're inhaling, this is
what's going on. It's the samecancers that are akin to nine eleven responders
today, the same thing, thesame chemical composition, everything is together on
(15:26):
it. However, we were justwe're just giving the kiss off. We
were kissed the boys goodbye. Thatwas the simplest. The City Hall didn't
want to know about us. Itwould take them if they put hundreds of
us out online and duty, theywould have to bring one hundreds of new
(15:48):
firefighters into the academy. The citysimply didn't have the money. It didn't
have the money. So, insomewhat a sad sense, we were expendable.
When did you When? When wereyou diagnosed? Danny Well, I
was so fearful of all my colleagueswere coming down with these different cancers.
(16:08):
I had read this articles by doctorLinus Pauling and everything that megadosis and vitamini
could ward off cancer and whatever,and I took that religiously. Every day,
four hundred and fifty international units,and I was doing everything because Shelley.
(16:29):
Every time the phone rang, itwas Danny and they'd be like,
yeah, guess who died, Andinevitably it was a firefighter from the phone
company fire So for years we petitionedcity Hall at a hierarchy, and nobody
nobody wanted to know about that.We were knocking on the door and nobody
(16:55):
answered. So I developed and answeredyour question. Five months before and eleven,
I was diagnosed with leukemia, andin order to make sure it was
from the pharm fire, I wasliving in San Diego at the time.
I went to the UCLA School ofOccupational Environmental Medicine and they did a comprehensive
(17:18):
study on me and everything else exposedto and their opinion, to a reasonable
degree of medical certainty, is thatmy leukemia is from the exposure, even
though it was twenty something years ago. It all everybody's different. If you
were thirty five there and the carcynogenstore themselves in your body differently, you
(17:45):
can develop cancer within months. Althoughfolks ten years and my my think it
was twenty something years so, butit's coming. It's the same, you
know, with nine to eleven.Now we have two one hundred and thirty
firefighters. Just last week Shell twohundred and thirty. We lost three hundred
and forty three on that day onnine eleven. We were up to post
(18:11):
post nine to eleven. Primarily cancer. The firefighters who have died from that
exposure. I mean we're getting prettyclose to the original three hundred and forty.
We're at two hundred and fifty atthis at this taping, Danny,
Danny, when nine to eleven happened, did you did you immediately start thinking,
(18:34):
oh my god, this is happening, this is going to happen again.
What were your thoughts? Because youlived this absolutely absolutely. I was
still in San Diego. I cameback to my last fire It took me
a couple of days to hopscotch crossedthe country. Nothing was flying at that
time because I lost ten membites formy former firehouse in the Bowie engine thirty
(19:00):
three lad at nine. So Igot back as swiftly as I could,
and my intention was to ride theraids and free up one of the young
buff guys. I'd just been diagnosed. Yeah, but I can still ride.
And everything's gone. I got tothe firehouse and everything's gone. All
the rigs are crushed, everything's gone. So it did give it an opportunity
(19:23):
to work what we say the pile. But it's some very brave people from
the Medical Bureau. Within forty eighthours of nine to eleven, they went
to city Hall and they demanded ameeting with the mayor, the chief of
staff, et cetera, et cetera, and they said, do you recall
(19:45):
the seventy five telephone company fire Andthey were like, of course, I
remember my office, I had aphone. Of course we do. Said
when we had happened to those sevenhundred firefighter was a disgrace. We can
never allow that to happen again.We have to implement a healthcare program that
(20:08):
needs to be the gold standard,and the city administration agreed with them,
and now also through the federal government, through our lobbying of Congress, we
have the nine to eleven Healthcare WorldTrade Center Healthcare, which is a fabulous
program. They do great. Theyprovide for us to identify it, checkups,
(20:33):
everything we didn't have they currently have. Are you telling me that you
were working the pile after you werediagnosed with leukemia? Yeah, but that's
not a big deal. No,that is a big deal because that speaks
volumes about FDN wires. This iswhat they do. They serve Shelley.
You got to remember in those earlydays, we had five thousand saviness and
(21:00):
we had five hundred FDNY firefighters missing. So you know, it's time to
settle up. You know, theseare your brother's insists or missing in this
giant smoking pile that used to beidentical one hundred and ten story buildings.
We had to get there in tunnel, whether bare hands or whatever. You
(21:22):
know, it was the rally car. Time to step up? Did did
they finally? Were you all takencare of? Finally? I mean yes?
What with nine to eleven? Yes? No, no, no,
no no, the New York TelephoneExchange fire nothing. I have petitioned the
(21:44):
administration, I along with the CommunicationWorkers of America. I asked him simply,
simply, if we could get asign on the corner of Second Avenue
and thirty eighth Street, of SecondAvenue and thirteenth Street to say phone,
fire, firefighters way. That's all, like all these hundreds of signs.
(22:07):
So I live on Second Avenue,ninety first in my corner is known as
Jimmy Cagney Place. Right a coupleof blocks over is King Gustaf of Norway
Place. And all through the citywe have honoring those we lost at nine
to eleven. Recently in the Bronx, very well known rapper, he just
got his sign. I can't evenget the first base with this that we
(22:33):
none of us received any any ribbonsof notorious action. No, no medals,
there's no plaques that exist, nostreet sign there's nothing, nothing.
We just have our collective memory thatwe passed from generation of the generation of
(22:55):
firefighters. So what could our listenersdo to help? Uh, well,
that's an interesting question they could.Well, we have a group now,
it's called FACES Firefighters Against Cancer Exposure, and this is what we're trying to
(23:17):
educate and illuminate those firefighters following usof the perils of this cancer exposure.
And all mantra is shelley to getchecked. Now. Of course, early
prevention is the key here. Ifyou're becoming different, you continue to superman
attitude or whatever. In the canceradvances in stages. This is when difficulties
(23:45):
prevail. You have an obligation notonly to your family, to your brother
and sister firefighters, to the community, to get checked. To get checked.
You cannot. Our job is sodanger list in today's world with everything
we're supposed to. This is nolonger water is burning and cotton. No,
(24:07):
it's all these new polymers, thesenew plastic shelley that are fused together.
When and when they're burnt, youdon't know what's giving off. You
don't know when that's ingested or whenthat lies on your flesh. You have
no idea how the impact this isa new day. Do we know?
Do we know? I'm sorry,Danny, Do we know how many of
(24:30):
the six hundred and ninety nine FDNwires that day or something? They will
not tell us. This is ina safe, buried deep the thing that
they did instead of healthcare. Onthe folders of the six hundred and ninety
nine respondents, they took a stampof a red star, and they simply
(24:52):
stamped each folder as identifying that thisfirefight them at the New York Telephone Exchange.
Five. That's all. Yet,and regretably, the folks who worked
the medical Bureau and who dealt withthis begin to refer to that red stamp
(25:14):
as the red star of death.I have to think that there are so
many telephone worker employees. Oh,Shelley, you're so correct, You're so
correct. I've stayed in touch withthem through the years. They had five.
(25:34):
They were told by the government it'ssafe to go back into that building.
Where did we hear those words?A week after September eleventh, go
on exactly exactly. They went inand they were doing twelve hour shifts.
As they said, they brought inthousands of workers. When they came out
of that building after that ship,you could not identify their ethnicity. You
(26:00):
couldn't tell if they were occasion,if you were lighting, or whether they
were all covered completely from the headto toe. And all this black,
toxic dust it was. And thecancer that has hit them through the years
is remarkable, remarkable. They weretold with safe to go back in.
(26:22):
They hung their carrot in front ofthem with overtime. Oh, you're gonna
get double over time, get backin there. We got to get the
phones working. And oh boy,all of a sudden, who has cancer?
Who has cancer? Dolly has cancer? The young black woman she so
(26:42):
how does she get? Who elsegot cancer? They're all healthy. It's
it's much much similar to what weexperience in the ft and y and who
knows about the community, Shelley,all these walk up buildings in the high
rise that surrounded us, it waswho knows and embedded into their fabrics,
(27:07):
into their clothing, all this andthey lived among it, and oh,
it's just this is a horror showthat has gone unrecognized for decades and up
top they don't want to know.They want to give the New York forget
about it. Well, what weneed is everyone learning this history and paying
(27:30):
tribute. How are you today,health wise, Danny? I have issues.
I have certified nine to eleven canceras well throw cancer, multiple surgeries
at Sloan cattering a couple hundred daysthere. It's Sloan, but it's not
(27:52):
about me. I don't like touse the word I. It's collective.
It's all of us. It's thefirst responded community, Shelley. That's why
we got a rally in Unison here. We gotta stay strong together. Do
you have any regrets? None regretsthat you know. I worked with firefighters
(28:15):
at the Phone Company fire who madeincredible rescues, rescues that were untimaginable.
We had one firefighter from Rescue threeup in the South Broggs. They were
there and we had a chief andhis aid. They were trapped on an
upper floor. So the chief ofdepartment selected this lieutenant another firefighter. They
(28:38):
for the second time, they evacuatedeverybody out of the building. The chief
and his aid couldn't get out.They didn't know where they were they were
trapped. So the lieutenant and thefirefighter went in and fortunately they found them,
and they brought them to a window, and they brought up an aerial
platform which we call a tower,brought them up and they placed them inside
(29:03):
of that. But now there's fivefirefighters in an aerial platform and it's way
overweight. So they exited the buildingvia the interior staircase and one of our
outside hose lines, a high pressureline opened up and hit that firefighter on
the side of his head, onthe nose. They you're just putting it
(29:25):
through the smoke, knocked him onconscious, rolled them down the stairs,
and that lieutenant out of air.In the most remarkable rescue I could ever
imagine, dragged this firefighter out ofthe building to wadding ms off to Bellevue
unconscious fire. This lieutenant did notgo sick next tour. He went out
(29:52):
for a couple of days to gethimself together. He returned to work a
week later and they have a routinefire in the south Bronx what we call,
you know, just a strip mall, and they were forced outside by
the high heat. All of asudden, this lieutenant drops to his knees
and they drag him off to thehospital where he dies. Oh my god.
(30:15):
So they did an AUTOPSI and hislungs. His lungs showed that the
plural sack of his loan was actuallyeaten away by all these different chemicals that
were from the phone fire. Andhe was forty six years old with two
daughters. Oh my god. Andit was classified line of duty death from
(30:37):
the strip mall, not from tendays before at the phone fire. They
don't want to know about the phonefire. Well, we need to have
recognition of what happened in nineteen seventyfive that goes on today. I want
to thank you, retired FDN wireDanny Noonan, and for your services well
(30:59):
after September eleventh, we need aplaque. Guys, the people listening to
me, you can make that happen. And I thank you and everyone have
a good day. Do not forgetwhat happened today. We honor the late
FDN wire Danny Noonan, who losthis cancer battles this week. Never forget.
(31:21):
You've been listening to Sunstein sessions oniHeartRadio, a production of New York's
classic rock Q one O four pointthree
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio,Conversations about issues that matter. Here's your
host, three time Grasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein. This week we lost
retired FDN wire Danny Noonan at seventysix to cancer. Now Danny was certified
with more than one nine to elevencancers many years twenty six years before September
(00:24):
eleventh, there was another toxic firein New York City, really a harbinger
of September eleventh. It was nineteenseventy five. It was the winter when
there was a fire in the NewYork Telephone building at Second Avenue and thirteenth
(00:47):
Street in the East Village, sixhundred and ninety nine. FDN wires responded.
No one died fortunately that day becauseof the toxins in the fire in
the building. Twenty years later,FDN wires started coming down with cancer as
(01:14):
a result, and again this wasbefore September eleventh. Unfortunately, one of
those suffering from cancer as a result, he was twenty five when he responded
to this fire. Danny Noonan iswith us today. First of all,
I'm so sorry for what you're goingthrough. Well, thank you very much
(01:34):
for having you. It's quite anhonor to be on the show. And
thanks again. Well, thank you. Tell us about take us back to
that day actually that night. Wow, we got to go back sometime here
nineteen hundred and seventy five. Iwas a new firefightum, just had two
years of what we call on thejob, so two years on the job,
(01:59):
and was one night in the middleof February, towards the end of
February, and we got the alarmcame ore on about a little bit after
midnight and it said respond to theNew York Telephone Exchange. And that building
is located on Second Avenue in Eastthirteenth Street in Manhattan, as you said
(02:20):
before. And we pulled up tothe scene, and we were unaware of
what was going on. We justsaw all these numerous telephone employees running from
the building, just vomiting in thestreets on all fours, grasping for air
and everything. We were completely unawareof what the situation was. So under
(02:42):
the leadership of my lieutenant and wewent in and on these display panels,
we met telephone company employees who said, listen, we have a very serious
fire down in the sub cellar vaults, which are some three stars underground and
we're like whaa. And our missionwas to identify the location of the fire
(03:08):
and to make sure all of thoseemployees were out of the building. And
that was our task, and youdid that. We did that, and
we did that. We as wemade ourselves. We went down floor by
floor and we got to what's knownas the sub cell of vaults Shelley.
(03:32):
The visibility there became like close tozero. We couldn't see each other.
We just fell for one another andwe went down and we're trying to discover
exactly where that fire originated from.It was so dark, so crazy.
All of the polyethylene that was onthe PBC piping is melting and it's now
(03:57):
covering the floor in our boots startingto adhere to it. So we were
in this sub subseellar of this crazyreality down there, and we found nobody,
found no fire. Our lieutenant andthe chief would be best if we
back out to the lobby. Butin the intrum, they had sent new
(04:20):
firefighters down the staircase to assist us, and we became entangled in the staircase,
and then we started to lose ourair supply, and by this time
now the alarms are being transmitted,and we developed to it is now over
six hundred firefighters on seat six hundredand ninety nine of us. And we
(04:44):
still went on all night long andwent on for seventeen hours. And the
smoke that was pushing out of thiswas like having razor blades in your throat.
It's unlike anything we have ever comeacross in my time on the department,
which was limited. But these veteranfirefighters who have been in the East
(05:08):
Village, have been in Manhattan,have been in the Bronx, has never
ever seen anything like this. Andthen firefighters started to get sick and down
we went one after another, oneafter another continuously like dominos, and we're
filling up Bellevue firefighters are becoming unconscious. They're removing them to Bellevue Hospital.
(05:31):
We have members of the Communication Workersof America who worked in the building.
They're are all falls, they canmove, and then there's people in their
community on East thirteenth Street or whatever. Several hours into the fire, we
recognized our safety battime recognized that therewas a moving crack in the east wall,
(05:56):
and this is an eleven story building, so we thought the best to
evacuate everybody on East thirteenth Street andall those walk up tenements there. But
as a sign of the times,Shelley people didn't want to leave because they
were fearful that their apartments were beingripped off if they left. But we
(06:19):
were highly concerned for them, andeventually they fled the building holding towels over
their mouth. And then also babies. We were concerned about babies whose respiratory
track has not yet fully been developed, and we wanted them out of the
destructions and out of harm's way ofthis massive exposure of this deadly toxic smoke.
(06:47):
So seventeen hours later it was declaredunder control, but it burnt for
days. It was relatious. Wereyou taken to the hospital that day?
I wanted to go to the hospital. I had difficulty in breathing. They
told me Dan Firefighting owner. Hesays, every hospital here in the whole
(07:11):
downtown Manhattan area is filled up.They opened up this book and they said
you live in the Bell Harbor sectionof Rockaway Beach. I said I do,
And he said the closest hospital foryou, And they gave me the
name of my local hospital and toldme to go report there. This is
how widespread, how jam packed.Every facility they closed, Starvedston High School,
(07:38):
Starvedston High School before I moved downtownoccupied East fourteenth Street. Boy,
that's on irony now, isn't it? Yo? Yes? Really these folks.
So did you go to the hospitalin Bell Harbor. No? I
didn't. I decided to rough it. I was what I thought it was
(07:59):
a tough guy at twenty six yearsold. And then I went to the
fire Department Medical Division as soon asthey had an opening, which was wasn't
until two days later. Then Iwent in and they put me on medical
leave for two weeks, trying toget my respiratory system back on track.
But out of this six hundred andninety nine firefighter Shelley two one hundred and
(08:24):
thirty nine, when sick on thescene. This is when a firefighter goes
to the battalion, goes to themedical folks unseen and go I'm done.
I'm done. I can't breathe,I can't breathe. I get respiratory issues.
Something is seriously a mission. Twoone hundred and thirty nine firefighters did
(08:46):
this. Firefighters on all fours wereleaning up against every building all around the
neighborhood. What was burning was onebillion feet of PV that's PVC coding when
they put them around the cables.Now, eventually all the phones start to
(09:07):
go out in Lower Manhattan. Theseare all first of all the nine to
one one where you call in thatdies, that goes silent. Then block
by block by block, all theway going south to Wall Street, all
the phones in three hundred square blocksgoes silent. There's no phone sucks.
(09:33):
And this includes all these housing projects, This includes NYU and includes thousands.
It got so bad that this hadglobal financial implications. Nobody, none of
these merchants could be in contact withtheir suppliers, with their customers. You
(09:54):
got to remember this as a preemail error and everything was done via telephone,
via communication as such, and witheverything out of service for several weeks,
it became very chaotic. So itwas it had significant consequences to the
(10:15):
city, the country, and theglobal markets. For how long they the
telephone company which is now Verizon,was able to get restore service back.
I believe it was like five weeks, and they called it the Miracle on
(10:37):
Second Avenue. We called it theMount Saint Helen Is on East thirteenth Street.
That's you know the volcano that eruptedin Washington. Yeah, so that's
what we referred to. And itburnt and it went off for days and
days, and it was just wewere up against these times, these deadly
(11:01):
toxins, and it had a hellof an impact on the entire FDM line.
They had to mobilize five thousand membersof the Communication Workers of America from
all over the country to come inand begin restoration on this smoldering rooms,
(11:22):
the smoldering rooms that used to bethe telephone exchange on Second Avenue, and
they went in and it was stilland they took massive exposure to try to
get all these systems. They removedShelley one billion feet of this burnt polyvinal
(11:43):
chloride. Was an absolute disaster.And the folks in the community who surrounded
us by several blocks, they allhad all these different issues, and you
know, the Red Cross took overa local YMCA. We opened all these
different facilities. Salvation Army was wonderful, but this was frankly, if I
(12:07):
can succinctly put him as following nineto eleven, this is the most deadly
and coarsely as file in the historyof the fdmy of the New York City
Fire Department. I'm speaking with DannyNoonan. He is a retired FDN wire.
He was twenty six in nineteen seventyfive tending to the fire of the
(12:33):
New York Telephone Exchange, and ashe has been describing, hundreds of the
six hundred and ninety nine firefighters whoresponded became ill right on the scene,
just collapsing on the scene, takento hospital's telephone service knocked out. But
it didn't stop there. Now,when did you get back to work on
(12:56):
the FDNY Your health didn't problem wasback. I was back within a month.
But the irony was this was inlate February. In June, I
got laid off. It was thefinancial crisis of the city. You recall
the classic daily news headlines for thecity dropped dead while we suffered the concert
(13:22):
consequences of this. We had ninehundred firefighters who were laid off. Originally
it was eighteen hundred, brought backnine hundred. I believe there was twenty
seven hundred police officers who were laidoff as well. So my gratitude for
this was a pink slab and Iwas laid off for a year and a
half and then following this, Ishould say, in the following months,
(13:50):
all these firefighters from different firehouses.It's not my firehouse, which is just
down the block from collectively all throughoutthe city, but primary in the first
and second alarm assignings. We're startingto notice cancer in cancer months months,
(14:11):
months, months, months, ayear. I'd say most prevalent between a
year to two years. And thiscancer is manifesting himself in these young,
athletic, healthy firefighters. There's onefirefighter in my house. He was the
fallback on the football team. Hedevelops this crazy brain cancer with no family
(14:37):
history of it. He's got fourlovely daughters. Boom. Then we get
a phone call firefighter from the nextfirehouse. Another firefighter, another one that's
interstitial fibrosis. Everybody's coming down.Everybody's coming down with these multiple cancers from
this deadly exposure. We had tothis billion feet of PVC, and we
(15:00):
up against chemicals like chlorinated dioxen,the most deadly chemical known to man.
Card This is what we're fighting,this is what we're inhaling, this is
what's going on. It's the samecancers that are akin to nine eleven responders
today, the same thing, thesame chemical composition, everything is together on
(15:26):
it. However, we were justwe're just giving the kiss off. We
were kissed the boys goodbye. Thatwas the simplest. The City Hall didn't
want to know about us. Itwould take them if they put hundreds of
us out online and duty, theywould have to bring one hundreds of new
(15:48):
firefighters into the academy. The citysimply didn't have the money. It didn't
have the money. So, insomewhat a sad sense, we were expendable.
When did you When? When wereyou diagnosed? Danny Well, I
was so fearful of all my colleagueswere coming down with these different cancers.
(16:08):
I had read this articles by doctorLinus Pauling and everything that megadosis and vitamini
could ward off cancer and whatever,and I took that religiously. Every day,
four hundred and fifty international units,and I was doing everything because Shelley.
(16:29):
Every time the phone rang, itwas Danny and they'd be like,
yeah, guess who died, Andinevitably it was a firefighter from the phone
company fire So for years we petitionedcity Hall at a hierarchy, and nobody
nobody wanted to know about that.We were knocking on the door and nobody
(16:55):
answered. So I developed and answeredyour question. Five months before and eleven,
I was diagnosed with leukemia, andin order to make sure it was
from the pharm fire, I wasliving in San Diego at the time.
I went to the UCLA School ofOccupational Environmental Medicine and they did a comprehensive
(17:18):
study on me and everything else exposedto and their opinion, to a reasonable
degree of medical certainty, is thatmy leukemia is from the exposure, even
though it was twenty something years ago. It all everybody's different. If you
were thirty five there and the carcynogenstore themselves in your body differently, you
(17:45):
can develop cancer within months. Althoughfolks ten years and my my think it
was twenty something years so, butit's coming. It's the same, you
know, with nine to eleven.Now we have two one hundred and thirty
firefighters. Just last week Shell twohundred and thirty. We lost three hundred
and forty three on that day onnine eleven. We were up to post
(18:11):
post nine to eleven. Primarily cancer. The firefighters who have died from that
exposure. I mean we're getting prettyclose to the original three hundred and forty.
We're at two hundred and fifty atthis at this taping, Danny,
Danny, when nine to eleven happened, did you did you immediately start thinking,
(18:34):
oh my god, this is happening, this is going to happen again.
What were your thoughts? Because youlived this absolutely absolutely. I was
still in San Diego. I cameback to my last fire It took me
a couple of days to hopscotch crossedthe country. Nothing was flying at that
time because I lost ten membites formy former firehouse in the Bowie engine thirty
(19:00):
three lad at nine. So Igot back as swiftly as I could,
and my intention was to ride theraids and free up one of the young
buff guys. I'd just been diagnosed. Yeah, but I can still ride.
And everything's gone. I got tothe firehouse and everything's gone. All
the rigs are crushed, everything's gone. So it did give it an opportunity
(19:23):
to work what we say the pile. But it's some very brave people from
the Medical Bureau. Within forty eighthours of nine to eleven, they went
to city Hall and they demanded ameeting with the mayor, the chief of
staff, et cetera, et cetera, and they said, do you recall
(19:45):
the seventy five telephone company fire Andthey were like, of course, I
remember my office, I had aphone. Of course we do. Said
when we had happened to those sevenhundred firefighter was a disgrace. We can
never allow that to happen again.We have to implement a healthcare program that
(20:08):
needs to be the gold standard,and the city administration agreed with them,
and now also through the federal government, through our lobbying of Congress, we
have the nine to eleven Healthcare WorldTrade Center Healthcare, which is a fabulous
program. They do great. Theyprovide for us to identify it, checkups,
(20:33):
everything we didn't have they currently have. Are you telling me that you
were working the pile after you werediagnosed with leukemia? Yeah, but that's
not a big deal. No,that is a big deal because that speaks
volumes about FDN wires. This iswhat they do. They serve Shelley.
You got to remember in those earlydays, we had five thousand saviness and
(21:00):
we had five hundred FDNY firefighters missing. So you know, it's time to
settle up. You know, theseare your brother's insists or missing in this
giant smoking pile that used to beidentical one hundred and ten story buildings.
We had to get there in tunnel, whether bare hands or whatever. You
(21:22):
know, it was the rally car. Time to step up? Did did
they finally? Were you all takencare of? Finally? I mean yes?
What with nine to eleven? Yes? No, no, no,
no no, the New York TelephoneExchange fire nothing. I have petitioned the
(21:44):
administration, I along with the CommunicationWorkers of America. I asked him simply,
simply, if we could get asign on the corner of Second Avenue
and thirty eighth Street, of SecondAvenue and thirteenth Street to say phone,
fire, firefighters way. That's all, like all these hundreds of signs.
(22:07):
So I live on Second Avenue,ninety first in my corner is known as
Jimmy Cagney Place. Right a coupleof blocks over is King Gustaf of Norway
Place. And all through the citywe have honoring those we lost at nine
to eleven. Recently in the Bronx, very well known rapper, he just
got his sign. I can't evenget the first base with this that we
(22:33):
none of us received any any ribbonsof notorious action. No, no medals,
there's no plaques that exist, nostreet sign there's nothing, nothing.
We just have our collective memory thatwe passed from generation of the generation of
(22:55):
firefighters. So what could our listenersdo to help? Uh, well,
that's an interesting question they could.Well, we have a group now,
it's called FACES Firefighters Against Cancer Exposure, and this is what we're trying to
(23:17):
educate and illuminate those firefighters following usof the perils of this cancer exposure.
And all mantra is shelley to getchecked. Now. Of course, early
prevention is the key here. Ifyou're becoming different, you continue to superman
attitude or whatever. In the canceradvances in stages. This is when difficulties
(23:45):
prevail. You have an obligation notonly to your family, to your brother
and sister firefighters, to the community, to get checked. To get checked.
You cannot. Our job is sodanger list in today's world with everything
we're supposed to. This is nolonger water is burning and cotton. No,
(24:07):
it's all these new polymers, thesenew plastic shelley that are fused together.
When and when they're burnt, youdon't know what's giving off. You
don't know when that's ingested or whenthat lies on your flesh. You have
no idea how the impact this isa new day. Do we know?
Do we know? I'm sorry,Danny, Do we know how many of
(24:30):
the six hundred and ninety nine FDNwires that day or something? They will
not tell us. This is ina safe, buried deep the thing that
they did instead of healthcare. Onthe folders of the six hundred and ninety
nine respondents, they took a stampof a red star, and they simply
(24:52):
stamped each folder as identifying that thisfirefight them at the New York Telephone Exchange.
Five. That's all. Yet,and regretably, the folks who worked
the medical Bureau and who dealt withthis begin to refer to that red stamp
(25:14):
as the red star of death.I have to think that there are so
many telephone worker employees. Oh,Shelley, you're so correct, You're so
correct. I've stayed in touch withthem through the years. They had five.
(25:34):
They were told by the government it'ssafe to go back into that building.
Where did we hear those words?A week after September eleventh, go
on exactly exactly. They went inand they were doing twelve hour shifts.
As they said, they brought inthousands of workers. When they came out
of that building after that ship,you could not identify their ethnicity. You
(26:00):
couldn't tell if they were occasion,if you were lighting, or whether they
were all covered completely from the headto toe. And all this black,
toxic dust it was. And thecancer that has hit them through the years
is remarkable, remarkable. They weretold with safe to go back in.
(26:22):
They hung their carrot in front ofthem with overtime. Oh, you're gonna
get double over time, get backin there. We got to get the
phones working. And oh boy,all of a sudden, who has cancer?
Who has cancer? Dolly has cancer? The young black woman she so
(26:42):
how does she get? Who elsegot cancer? They're all healthy. It's
it's much much similar to what weexperience in the ft and y and who
knows about the community, Shelley,all these walk up buildings in the high
rise that surrounded us, it waswho knows and embedded into their fabrics,
(27:07):
into their clothing, all this andthey lived among it, and oh,
it's just this is a horror showthat has gone unrecognized for decades and up
top they don't want to know.They want to give the New York forget
about it. Well, what weneed is everyone learning this history and paying
(27:30):
tribute. How are you today,health wise, Danny? I have issues.
I have certified nine to eleven canceras well throw cancer, multiple surgeries
at Sloan cattering a couple hundred daysthere. It's Sloan, but it's not
(27:52):
about me. I don't like touse the word I. It's collective.
It's all of us. It's thefirst responded community, Shelley. That's why
we got a rally in Unison here. We gotta stay strong together. Do
you have any regrets? None regretsthat you know. I worked with firefighters
(28:15):
at the Phone Company fire who madeincredible rescues, rescues that were untimaginable.
We had one firefighter from Rescue threeup in the South Broggs. They were
there and we had a chief andhis aid. They were trapped on an
upper floor. So the chief ofdepartment selected this lieutenant another firefighter. They
(28:38):
for the second time, they evacuatedeverybody out of the building. The chief
and his aid couldn't get out.They didn't know where they were they were
trapped. So the lieutenant and thefirefighter went in and fortunately they found them,
and they brought them to a window, and they brought up an aerial
platform which we call a tower,brought them up and they placed them inside
(29:03):
of that. But now there's fivefirefighters in an aerial platform and it's way
overweight. So they exited the buildingvia the interior staircase and one of our
outside hose lines, a high pressureline opened up and hit that firefighter on
the side of his head, onthe nose. They you're just putting it
(29:25):
through the smoke, knocked him onconscious, rolled them down the stairs,
and that lieutenant out of air.In the most remarkable rescue I could ever
imagine, dragged this firefighter out ofthe building to wadding ms off to Bellevue
unconscious fire. This lieutenant did notgo sick next tour. He went out
(29:52):
for a couple of days to gethimself together. He returned to work a
week later and they have a routinefire in the south Bronx what we call,
you know, just a strip mall, and they were forced outside by
the high heat. All of asudden, this lieutenant drops to his knees
and they drag him off to thehospital where he dies. Oh my god.
(30:15):
So they did an AUTOPSI and hislungs. His lungs showed that the
plural sack of his loan was actuallyeaten away by all these different chemicals that
were from the phone fire. Andhe was forty six years old with two
daughters. Oh my god. Andit was classified line of duty death from
(30:37):
the strip mall, not from tendays before at the phone fire. They
don't want to know about the phonefire. Well, we need to have
recognition of what happened in nineteen seventyfive that goes on today. I want
to thank you, retired FDN wireDanny Noonan, and for your services well
(30:59):
after September eleventh, we need aplaque. Guys, the people listening to
me, you can make that happen. And I thank you and everyone have
a good day. Do not forgetwhat happened today. We honor the late
FDN wire Danny Noonan, who losthis cancer battles this week. Never forget.
(31:21):
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