Grant funding provided in partnership with the Leary Firefighters Foundation with support from Sterling Rope

The Lt. Joseph P. DiBernardo Memorial Foundation is pleased to announce its grant award to the Burdett Fire Department (NY). This grant, in the amount of $12,782, was provided by the Foundation in partnership with the Leary Firefighters Foundation and with the support of Sterling Rope. Grant funding will provide department members with personal life safety rope systems and related training.

Now in it its third year, the Lt. Joseph P. DiBernardo Memorial Foundation grant program has awarded over $39,000 to departments. Established in Joey’s memory in 2012, the Lt. Joseph P. DiBernardo Memorial Foundation holds training events that promote firefighter to raise funds to support its grant program. It also relies on the generous support of our sponsors and partners to help train and equip firefighters.

In 2005, Lt. Joseph P. DiBernardo, known to his friends and colleagues as “Joey D,” was critically injured in a Bronx apartment fire where two firefighters perished and three others were also badly injured. A personal safety rope system, carried by fellow Rescue 3 Firefighter Jeff Cool, helped both Joey and Jeff to escape the flames by lowering themselves as far as they could from the four-story jump. After the incident, Joey traveled around the country training firefighters and sharing his story to help other firefighters. His foundation will continue this work, helping firefighters in the United States and Canada.

In August 2012, New York Governor Cuomo, signed into law a measure to provide New York firefighters with personal safety rope systems or emergency escape systems in the event they become trapped in an elevated structure fire.

"I would like to thank everyone who has supported the Foundation and its mission to keep firefighters safe. Together we carry on Joey's legacy and work to prevent other tragedies from occurring ," says Chief Joe DiBernardo, Foundation president and Joey's father.

The Lt. Joseph P. DiBernardo Memorial Foundation will continue to train firefighters and provide grants to departments to ensure the safety of firefighters across the United States and Canada. To learn more about the Lt. Joseph P. DiBernardo Memorial Foundation’s grant program for personal life safety rope systems or to apply visit: www.joeydfoundation.org.