Philip Scarfi (Edmund J Coppa)
DOUBLE DIP: Philip Scarfi looks physically able as an assistant fire chief in Deer Park (left). (Victor Alcorn; Edmund J. Coppa)
A 9/11 FDNY firefighter who retired with a $107,000 tax-free disability pension has just taken a post as an assistant chief at a Long Island fire department.
Although Philip Scarfi, 50, was labeled “disabled” when he retired three years ago — possibly because of posttraumatic stress — he is now expected to lead crews of volunteer firefighters into burning buildings with the Deer Park Volunteer Fire Department in Suffolk County, sources told The Post.
“If he was sitting back and going fishing every day, that would be a horse of a different color,” one source fumed.
“But he’s now doing the very same thing for which he got a disability pension from the FDNY.”
Scarfi — the sole survivor of his engine company on 9/11 — was named to the unpaid position with the 120-member fire department earlier this month.
By all accounts, he was a hero on 9/11, driving his company’s firetruck to the burning Twin Towers and standing outside to maintain the water hoses when five fellow firefighters rushed inside.
The five died, as did a sixth co-worker — a battalion chief who worked at the firehouse and who had arrived at the scene separately.
Scarfi retired March 20, 2009, after 21 years with the FDNY, the last few with Engine Co. 235 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
He was granted his “accidental disability pension” under state legislation approved in 2005 that covers at least six separate types of “presumptive” illnesses deemed to have been the result of 9/11. They include cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The FDNY and other city officials contacted by The Post declined to specify why Scarfi was approved for his WTC disability pension, citing privacy concerns about his medical records.
But one source familiar with his case said he believes that Scarfi was granted a psychological disability because of 9/11-related PTSD.
If he had retired without the disability, his regular service pension would have entitled him to about $71,500 yearly plus an annual $12,000 supplement — both of which would be taxable.
Reached by phone, Scarfi declined comment. He only said that the physical demands of being a Deer Park fire supervisor are less onerous than the typical duties of an FDNY firefighter.
He then blamed “jealousy” and “politics” within the Deer Park squad for exposing his disability pension — which can’t be yanked unless the FDNY can prove there was fraud in obtaining it.
The Deer Park FD handles about 3,000 calls annually, and a chief must be prepared to lead by example, one source said, adding this was questionable in Scarfi’s case given his admitted disability.
The volunteer fire department does not require its members to undergo psychological evaluations or screening, according to sources.
Earlier this month, Scarfi, who had been with the Deer Park FD for 30 years, was elected “third assistant chief.”