Montour Falls Fire Department Receives Grant from Lt. Joseph P. DiBernardo Memorial Foundation Through Its Partnership with the Leary Firefighters Foundation and Support of Sterling Rope

Funds will provide life saving equipment and training to firefighters

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On October 23, 2014, the Montour Falls Fire Department received a grant from the Lt. Joseph P. DiBernardo Memorial Foundation through its partnership with the Leary Firefighters Foundation and with the support of Sterling Rope. The grant, in the amount of $13,812, will provide personal life safety rope systems and related training to 18 department members.

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.

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. Chief Joe DiBernardo, Foundation president and Joey's father, thanks supporters for what they have done to "carry on Joey's legacy of training firefighters and stressing the importance of life safety rope systems." These grants will help departments that do not have the financial means to provide this life-saving equipment.

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.

To ensure the safety of firefighters across the United States and Canada, the Lt. Joseph P. DiBernardo Memorial Foundation will continue to train firefighters and provide grants to departments in need of safety equipment. 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.