February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
In terms of lives lost and injuries sustained, it was the worst single day for the department since September 11.
Also killed in the Bronx fire was father of three Lt. Curtis Meyran, 46, of Battalion 26.
Four firefighters were seriously hurt after all six were forced to jump from the building as flames shot up from a floor below.
One of the injured was Brendan Cawley, also of Ladder 27. Cawley’s brother, Michael Cawley, who was assigned to Ladder 136 in Queens, died at the World Trade Center on September 11.
The third firefighter to die Sunday was Richard Sclafani. He died after being injured in a blaze in Brooklyn.
John Bellew, who was with Ladder 27 in the Bronx and was a member of the Fire Department Emerald Society, will be saluted and remembered at a concelebrated requiem Mass Thursday at St. Margaret’s Church, West Central Avenue in Pearl River.
The Mass is set for 11 a.m. and Cardinal Edward Egan is expected to be among the concelebrants. Burial will follow in St. Anthony’s Cemetery, Nanuet.
The pastor of St. Margaret’s, Monsignor John O’Keefe, is particularly aware of what the families of firefighters go through after losing their loves ones.
His own father, who was with Engine Company 16 in Manhattan, died in a fire in August, 1966.
John Bellew, a native of Howard Beach, Queens and a graduate of Manhattan College is survived by his wife Eileen and four children; Briella, 6, Jack, 3, Katreanna, 2 and Kieran, who is just five months.
The Bellews first met in the Jersey Shore town of Brielle and named their eldest daughter’s after the town. They were married in 1995.
Bellew’s brother Dan, himself a retired firefighter, told the Weschester Journal-News newspaper that the couple spent every possible moment together.
They even ran and completed the New York City Marathon side by side in 1999. “He treasured the time he was with them. He loved cooking for them, sitting and reading books, playing games. He and his wife loved to go jogging,” Bellew said of his brother.
Uniformed Firefighters Association president Steve Cassidy said in a statement that Sunday, Jan. 23 was “an immensely sad day” in the history of the Department.
“Sadly, these dual tragedies serve as a reminder to New York of the extreme dangers firefighters face,” he said.
“John was doing God’s work, saving lives, said one Pearl River friend of the Bellew family.