Magnificent Fire Chief’s Last Call to Duty

This post will
stay at the top until after midnight of

              
September 11th

I joined the 2996 Call For Bloggers– to honor a victim of the September 11 attacks. I would like to share with you about a wonderful man and Hero.

Raymond Downey
Deputy Chief Special Operations Command
Laid to rest on May 20, 2002

After serving with the U.S. Marine Corps in the Middle East, Chief Downey was appointed to the FDNY on April 7, 1962.
Raymond M. Downey, as Deputy Chief for the Fire Department of the City of New York will always be the person recognized as the “Father” of modern Urban Search and Rescue techniques.

In March 1998, Chief Downey testified before Congress about the first attack on the World Trade Center. Requesting additional funding for Urban Search and Rescue, at that hearing he said:

…”We, the fire service, are no better prepared then we were back in 1995. Why? The training that has been given with federal funding is not being directed to the “first responder,” and the lack of providing funding for the necessary equipment for these responders is directly related to the lack of our preparedness.
…The first responders, the firefighters…performed heroic actions only because they were able to be on the scene within minutes and were properly trained and equipped. “

In August of 2001, he was placed in charge of all SOC (Special Operations Command) operations – Rescue, Squad, Haz Mat and Marine – and promoted to Deputy Chief.
Chief Downey’s phenomenal 39-year career with the FDNY was built upon success after success and rescue after rescue. Downey became one of the city’s most decorated firefighters and achieved almost mythical status among them for his steely resolve in the face of disaster. Chief Downey received five individual medals for valor and 16 unit citations. Additionally, he was awarded the Administration Medal in 1995 for his efforts on the Bunker Gear Program and interim quartermaster system.

Among the elite rescue firefighters who served under him, Ray Downey was held in awe for his uncanny ability to arrive at a major disaster and size up the mayhem with little more than a glance. In a quiet voice, with no discussion, he would start doling out instructions and assignments and call for equipment no one had thought of. Somehow, miraculously, the chaos would transform itself into a smooth and orderly rescue operation.
That’s why his fellow New York City firefighters called him “God.”

Downey was sitting in his office at the Special Operation Division on Randalls Island, surrounded by photos and mementos of the World Trade Center and Oklahoman City bombings and a long ago blast at a plumbing supply store in Brooklyn.
He harkened back to a blaze he had fought when he was a new member of that big family. A woman had cried out as he and his comrades dashed into the flame and smoke.

“She said, ‘You firemen are crazy. You’re running in when we’re all running out,'” Downey remembered.

He since had become the world’s leading expert in responding to terrorist attacks. He spoke of his work as a member of the Gilmore Commission, a congressional advisory panel that last year issued a report called “Toward a National Strategy for Combating Terrorism.” The group had briefed Vice President Cheney in May, recommending a greater priority on intelligence and preventing terrorist attacks before they occur.
Downey helped pioneer a national network of eight search and rescue teams under the federal Emergency Management Agency. Many of the members of the eight FEMA teams that searched for him were his trainees. And in his spare time, he traveled across the country preaching the need to prepare for terrorism.
Downey also helped teach some of his techniques to senior commanders of the Marine Corps and the Navy, running combat scenarios in high-rise buildings and sewers, some of them in the trade center neighborhood, in 1997.

“Unfortunately, it’s not a question of if, but when the next one comes,” he said.

“The general consensus in the current atmosphere is that the next war we fight will be in an urban area,” Downey told Newsday in 1997.

The commission was meeting as Downey sat in his office. He called them to explain he was occupied with the aftermath of an explosion triggered when two kids spilled some gasoline whose fumes were then ignited by the pilot light of a water heater in the basement of a hardware store.

Downey said he had arrived at the scene to find two firefighters dead in the street and a third one trapped. He had employed the same strategy as at Oklahoma City.

“Basically what I do is size it up,” he said. “I find out where he was last seen and picture in my mind the force of the explosion.”

The rescuers had reached the firefighter too late, and now there would be three funerals. The third found Downey wearing and hurting, but unshaken in his resolve.

“Everybody will just go back to work,” he said. “They are aware of the dangers we get involved in, but they will go out the door again. It’s just not going to stop them.”

Even so, three funerals in two days seemed almost too much for even him to bear.

“We always say, hopefully, that’s the end of it,” Downey said.

“He approached a fire straight on,” said Lee Ielpi, a recently retired firefighter from Rescue 2. “The easy thing to do would be to unscrew your head at a major incident. But he knew exactly what had to be done.”

Downey also made frequent trips to Washington, serving on a congressional advisory panel on domestic terrorism and lobbying politicians to give local firefighters more money. In an interview with Newsday in 1997, Downey warned that the next war would be fought in an urban setting.
His knowledge of how buildings fall apart was so legendary that at national firefighting conferences, whole rooms would go quiet when he walked in.

“He was kind of like a rock star. He was idolized,” said Hal Bruno, chairman of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.

In New York at 8:48 A.M., a Boeing 767 jetliner crashed into the North Tower 1 of the World Trade Center. A mission that was planned and carried out by followers of Islam.
The first plane had no sooner struck the World Trade Center on Tuesday morning, September 11th, 2001, than Downey was on his way. Then, the second tower. Flames and smoke erupt from # 2 World Trade Center. As the second Boeing 767 jetliner crashes from left to right into the 110- story tower, heavy smoke was visible venting from several floors of #1 World Trade Center.
That morning there was more action than anyone could have foreseen or wanted. Downey’s unit was among the first to be called in when the World Trade Center Towers were attacked. Downey went to lead his men. When the towers fell, he was leading the evacuation.

“He had been warning everyone of this for years,” said Joe Allbaugh, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. For Downey, “it wasn’t a matter of if, it was a matter of when.”

Exactly what transpired is still not clear, but according to one version, Hatton and Brown were inside the first tower when it collapsed. This account has Downey moving up the tower and toward where he hoped some of those trapped could be rescued.
An Air Force F-16 banked overhead, the engine’s roar echoing off the surviving buildings, a sound of power and impotence as the rescuers searched for life in the smoking ruins they call the pile.
Firefighters, cops, paramedics and construction workers labored together as they had after the first World Trade Center attack and the bombing at Oklahoma City, only the horror was magnified a thousand fold and the magnificent Fire Chief Ray Downey was not in command.
This time, Downey was himself one of the victims. He had, as always, been right there with his men, once again trying to will away the mortal danger.

“You say to yourself, ‘Not me,'” he said three months earlier. “But, when the unexpected happens there’s nothing you can do about it.”

He paused.

“I guess that’s the fate we all live with.”

Chief Downey’s body has not been found.

On Friday, October 22nd, 2004, the United States Marine Corps Chemical Biological Incident Response Force Command (CBIRF) dedicated their Training Facility in memory of Deputy Chief Raymond M. Downey. The dedication was at the CBIRF Training Facility in Stumpneck, Maryland.
Congress unanimously approved to name the Deer Park, Long Island, post office after New York Fire Chief Raymond Downey.

John Barbagallo worked in Rescue 2 with Downey….”He was the best fire officer I’ve ever known,” Barbagallo said. “And when you have a good leader, you’d follow him into hell.”

“He approached a fire straight on,” said Lee Ielpi, a recently retired firefighter from Rescue 2. “The easy thing to do would be to unscrew your head at a major incident. But he knew exactly what had to be done.”

To his five children – fire Lt. Chuck Downey of Commack, fire Capt. Joseph Downey of West Islip, Ray Downey Jr. of Babylon, Marie Tortorici of Deer Park and Kathy Ugalde of Deer Park….. Downey was a strict yet loving father who kept his work separate from his family life and encouraged them to channel their energy into sports. When they were growing up, Downey would sometimes work longer shifts just so he could make it to a son’s wrestling match or a daughter’s soccer game.

“He always had that Marine attitude – that tough exterior,” said his son Ray, a physical-education teacher. “But once you got behind that, he really was a softie.”

It may seem darkly ironic that a man who achieved international acclaim for his familiarity with rubbled disasters would himself die in one.
To his family and friends, it makes perfect sense. When a situation turned deadly, Downey would often order his men out just as he was running in.

Some things you learn about people only after they’ve gone. For the family of Raymond Downey, the manila folder was like that.
He never boasted about his accomplishments to his family, never reveled in the praise that seemed to follow him wherever he went.
Except for the manila folder he carried in his briefcase, that is. It was the only indulgence Downey allowed himself; He stuffed it with letters and accolades from a 39-year career and gave it a label in a small, tidy script: “That A Boys.”

His wife, Rosalie, found the folder after Downey, 63, was lost in the World Trade Center attack. “He never complimented himself,” she said. “He always just did what he had to do.”

Sometimes, Rosalie Downey says, she still talks to her husband, a man she met more than 40 years ago when they flirted through a glass partition in a Manhattan bank. She asks him why he didn’t stay out when he led other firefighters to safety that day.

But, she says, she knows better than that. “Then I tell myself, Ray would have never lived with himself.”

OUR ANGEL
By Kathy Downey Ugalde
On that dreadful day
We huddled in prayer
Hearts joined in sorrow
Pain difficult to bear
Our angels climbed up
As they helped others down
The towers may have fallen
But our BRAVEST
Never touched the ground
They kept soaring up
To that heavenly cloud
Shining strength down on us
We are grateful & proud
So please say a prayer
As a tribute to those
Whose love never faltered
And eternally grows

Wild Thing’s additional comment………….
One of my nephews is a firefighter in New York. He was there that morning, as all of them were. He lost 11 of his fellow firefighters including 2 Chiefs. I was honored to meet 4 of his friends that lost their lives on September 11th, 2001. They were in our home and they will never be forgotten, just as Chief Raymond M. Downey will never be forgotten.

And this is my tribute at my website, to all the lives lost that day when Islam rode into our world on planes destined to destroy us, but Islam did not know what Americans are about. They never will, but they do know our response to their evil….and that part I can smile about.

* Basil’s Blog
* Big Dog’s Blog
* Stop the ACLU
You can read Chief Raymond M. Downey’s speech to the Federal Response to Domestic Terrorism Involving WMD Training for First Responders Witness Statement ………..

Federal Response to Domestic Terrorism Involving WMD Training for First Responders Witness Statement
By Chief Raymond M. Downey, SOC, FDNY
FAS.org, (New York, NY), 03/21/98
Good morning Mr. Chairman and committee members. My name is Ray Downey and I’m the Chief of Rescue Operations for the Fire Department in the City of New York. First I would like to thank you for holding this hearing today. The Fire Service greatly appreciates the fact that your committee has concerns regarding WMD. The fire service is greatly concerned being first responders that will eventually have to deal with the issues of WMD.
My intent today is to speak not only as a member of the FDNY, but for the entire Fire Service. I have had the unique experience to respond to incidents of WMD both as a first responder and as a federal asset that arrived on the scene some twelve hours after the incident. This is one of many concerns that the fire service has about the training and expectations of both the fire service and federal support that is being promised in the event of an incident involving WMD.
During the World Trade Center bombing I was on the scene immediately after the bombing had taken place. Unless you have been their; you cannot fully appreciate what firefighters face during an incident of WMD terrorism. The fire service has always been respected by the public for their immediate response capability to the calls of those in danger. With that response comes the dedication and fearless courage displayed by these firefighters. It wasn’t any different at the World Trade Center. As a result of this terrorism incident, firefighters that operated at this incident still question what would have happened had that bomb been a “dirty” bomb. Would we take the same actions today, if a major bombilic, were to occur in our response district? Five years later, we are better prepared, have more knowledge about WMD, but still see many short falls in the area of First Responder capabilities for dealing with and mitigating incidents of WMD. The fear of Chemical or Biological terrorism is foremost in the minds of every firefigther. What we read and hear about regarding the nations preparations and training for these incidents does not go far enough.
During the World Trade Center bombing firefighters not only faced a difficult fire operation, but had to evacuate almost 50,000 occupants from the Trade Center complex. More than 500 victims were treated for various injuries, while another 600 responded to hospitals on their own. What would have happened if they had been contaminated by a chemical agent? In 1993 not a fire department in the United States could have handled an incident involving a chemical agent affecting this many victims. Can the fire service handle the same potential incident in 1998 after five years of additional preparation and training? The answer in most cases is a “NO”. Why? Lack of sufficient funding and training for WMD.
Two years after the Oklahoma City bombing 9 Chief Gary Marrs of the Oklahoma Fire Department providing witness testimony stated that we, the fire service, are no better prepared than we were back in 1995. Why? The training that has been given with federal funding is not being directed to the “First responder”, and the lack of providing funding for the necessary equipment for these responders is directly related to the lack of our preparedness, My experience of working for sixteen (16) days as the Operations Chief for the Urban Search and Rescue Teams in Oklahoma City only reinforces my feelings about the needs of the first responders. The Oklahoma City Fire Department has not received the real credit they deserve for the heroic actions they took during those first few hours before any help or support arrived from outside their jurisdiction. As was the case in the rescue effort during the World Trade Center bombing, the same results occurred during the Oklahoma City bombing. Not one victim in either incident died as a result of awaiting rescue by the firefighters after the bombing. The first responders, AKA, the firefighters in both cases performed these heroic actions only because they were able to-be on the scene within minutes and were properly trained and equipped. But, what if that bomb had an additional chemical agent dispersed with the explosion. Would the success rate been the same” Not likely. What would happen if it occurred today? Would we be prepared? Some fire departments have increased their capabilities, but the majority of the country is still not prepared for these type incidents.
In Atlanta the experience gained by the fire service after the bombing of the Family Planning Center, undoubtedly saved lives of firefighters and other emergency personnel that responded to the bombing of the Gay and Lesbian Nite Club. They had learned their lessons from the previous incidents. We have not had this opportunity when dealing with chemical, biological or nuclear terrorist incidents. What is it that the fire service needs to be prepared for these type incidents’? The preparation, training and equipment requirements should be approached from a bottom up planning process. Permit the first responders to get involved with the many various agencies at the Federal level that are preparing terrorism training programs that will ultimately affect them. This can be accomplished by reaching out to the first responder and finding out exactly what the needs of the fire service are. The federal government needs to provide assistance and funding, for training, detection equipment, personal protective equipment and mass decontamination capabilities. The realization by the federal government that the resources that they will supply to local jurisdictions during a WMD incident will be of support role and work under the direction of the local incident commander. If these goals can be reached the fire service will be much more capable of dealing with WMD incidents.
I want to thank you again for this opportunity to appear as a witness before you today and express to you on behalf of the entire fire service our sincere gratitude for the all the work and accomplishments that have benefited the fire service through your efforts. It is the first responder that will be facing the challenges that WMD presents, they are the ones that need the funding and assistance that the Federal Government can provide.