After 11 years of civil and criminal trials, a Bronx Supreme Court yesterday awarded $183 million to five plaintiffs in the “Black Sunday” case, which killed three firefighters, one from Malverne, and injured three others while they were battling a blaze in Tremont section of the Bronx.
The firemen were forced to jump from a fourth story window of a blazing apartment building to avoid being burned during the Jan. 2005 fire. The action resulted in the death of Malverne resident, Lt. Curtis Meyran, Firefighter John Bellow of upstate Pearl River, Firefighter Joseph DiBernardo of Miller Place, and permanently injuring three additional firefighters. The tragedy quickly became known in the media as the “Black Sunday” tenement fire.
The Meyran family had already settled its lawsuit separately with the city, and was not included in the settlement.
In the decision, jurors placed 80 percent of the blame for the deaths and injuries on the city, and 20 percent on the landlord. The case was focused on evidence that the city did not provide firefighters with life-saving ropes as part of their proper safety equipment.
Several months after the tragedy, in June 2005, New York became the country’s first large city to provide all firefighters with a rope and anchor.
