By JOSEPH KELLARD
Doug McKee says he was with his wife and three children at the block party on Oceanside Parkway at about 9:45 p.m. on Aug. 11 when an OFD truck turned from Fortesque Avenue onto Oceanside Parkway and stopped at the taped-off barricade at St. John Road.
According to McKee, a firefighter holding a beer bottle got out of the truck, ripped down the tape and got back into the truck as the driver steered it through the party with the siren blaring and lights flashing, followed by a black pickup truck filled with firefighters.
³There were still plenty of kids riding their bikes and scooters on the street, and the truck didn¹t even stop,² said McKee, 38. ³If my wife or I didn¹t step in front of my 3-year-old son, he would have been dead under this truck.²
Loretta Pittides, the resident who organized the block party, said, ³Someone had pulled down the tape that we had up, and they came barreling down the street.²
The truck stopped about a block and a half later, near Clarendon Road, McKee said, and 12 to 15 firefighters, all of whom were in uniform, got out. ³Even the guy driving the truck had a beer in his hand,² McKee said.
McKee, his friend Jimmy Dolan, and another man at the party confronted the firefighters, who were returning from a parade on the Nautical Mile in Freeport, and an argument ensued. ³A few of my neighbors were arguing with the firefighters,² said Billy, an Oceanside Parkway resident who was entertaining more than 100 guests. ³They were telling them we had kids in the street, and asked why they didn¹t put the caution tape back up. We live here, and they came down like they owned the block.²
Dolan said that one firefighter told him that they were invited to the party, and Dolan responded that in that case, they should have parked the truck down the street and walked to the party. ³I told them that I appreciate what they do as volunteer firemen,² Dolan said, ³but I said that to put people in a dangerous situation like that, they absolutely, 100 percent should know better.²
McKee said one firefighter pushed him aside to get at Dolan, and McKee told the firefighter to keep his hands off Dolan, at which point, McKee said, the firefighter pushed him and swore at him. McKee knocked the firefighter to the ground, he said, and then four or five other firefighters jumped on him and kicked, punched and choked him.
³I was fighting for my life at this point,² McKee recounted, adding that another partygoer eventually pulled the firefighters off him.
McKee claims that a firefighter started a fight with him. ³He threw a punch at me and hit me in the face, and I hauled off and hit him in the side of the head, and that¹s when I think I busted my hand,² McKee said.
At that point, McKee said, he and Dolan were surrounded and chased by 20 to 25 firefighters. Both McKee and Billy, who would not give his last name, alleged that many of the firefighters appeared drunk, smelling of alcohol and holding beer bottles. ³I can tell you one thing: I was drinking, but the firefighters I spoke to stunk,² said Billy, who estimated that most of the firefighters were in their early to mid-20s.
Eventually, McKee said, OFD Chief Thomas McDermott, who had turned down a side street instead of going through the block party, showed up and yelled at the firefighters to get in their vehicles and leave. ³He was mortified, and apologized from head to toe for what had happened,² McKee said.
He added that he called police, but waited for them for more than an hour and they never showed up. Both Pittides and Billy said the police never responded to the incident, though they did respond to another incident at the party.
The following morning, after McKee went to South Nassau Communities Hospital to have his hand put in a cast, he called police, who showed up at his home to write up a report on the incident. Last week, however, a police officer at the 4th Precinct was unable to find the report.
That day, McKee said, his wife called the OFD commissioners¹ office, and McDermott visited their home. ³He said, ŒWhat can I do to make this better?¹² said McKee, a carpenter whose broken right hand will keep him from work for two months.
On Aug. 13, McDermott and OFD Capt. Sean Costigan visited McKee¹s home and offered him $4,000, McKee said, but he responded that that would not cover his bills while he was out of work. The fire officials left and returned minutes later with an offer of $8,000, McKee said.
Later that day, McKee called the firefighters to inform them that his expenses for missed work would amount to $11,000. ³They agreed [to pay] and said I needed to sign something stating that I would not say anything about the incident to anybody,² McKee said. ³[McDermott] said the money would come out of the pockets of the firefighters involved.²
McKee never signed an agreement, and on Aug. 18, he said, he phoned McDermott, but the chief did not return his call. The next day, Lou Milone, a Rockville Centre attorney who represents the OFD, told him the deal was off, McKee said.
McKee¹s attorney, Josh Gropper, said he attempted to contact Milone early last week, but has yet to hear from him.
³I can¹t comment one way or the other about it,² Milone said. McDermott was unable to be reached through the OFD.
Responding to the Herald¹s repeated requests for the department¹s side of the story, another OFD attorney, Anthony Iovino, issued a statement on Monday. ³The Oceanside Fire District has received information concerning an alleged incident involving a block party on Oceanside Parkway,² the statement read. ³The department has commenced an independent investigation. Upon completion of the investigation the department will have further comment.² Iovino said he expected the investigation to be completed within a couple of weeks, after the next meeting of the Board of Fire Commissioners.
As the first, required step toward a possible lawsuit, Gropper has filed a notice of claim with the Town of Hempstead and Nassau County. ³We¹re still in the factual investigation, and trying to determine what was going on and whether what the firefighters did that night was done in an individual capacity, or if they were acting sort of in the context of their employment,² Gropper said.
He explained that he expects the OFD¹s defense to be that the firefighters acted on their own, and that the district cannot be held liable for their actions. ³But the fact that they were on a fire truck, with lights and sirens blaring, while in their dress uniforms would seem to cut against that,² Gropper said. ³... If they were acting in the context of their employment, which we think the facts will point to, then the employer of the individuals can be held liable for the actions of the individuals.²
Comments about it? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
