Fallen firefighter Joseph Graffagnino’s family spoke to reporters today for the first time since his death, and condemned the city and firefighter brass for failing to protect him.
“With the city it’s really all about money, it’s not about human life,” said his widow, Linda Graffagnino. “Now who is paying the price? Me, my in-laws and my children. The firefighters, they’re the good guys, and it’s the city’s responsibility to protect them,” she said.
Along with her late-husband’s mother and father, Linda Graffagnino said that firefighter brass and city officials ignored ongoing problems at the Deutsche Bank building and failed to create a plan to fight a blaze.
“Someone screwed up major,” said Linda. “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know if there’s no water in the building, you get the people out of there as fast as you can.”
“If you don’t have water to put a fire out, I don’t know how you’re going to put it out. I don’t know who you’re going to save,” she said.
Graffagnino’s father, Joe, said money and politics trumped safety at the building. He questioned why John Galt Corp., the subcontractor at the building, was able to continue working, even after receiving numerous safety violations from the city.
“That’s the biggest travesty of justice, I think, because that’s not justice at all,” he said.
His family said that after the city reveals what went wrong in the response to last Saturday’s fire, which killed Graffagnino and fellow firefighter Bobby Beddia, they will begin working to ensure that a such a tragedy never happens again.
“We’ll go anywhere, we’ll do anything, to right the wrongs that were done,” Joe said.
The family wants to see tracking devices installed in firefighter uniforms, so first responders on the outside never lose track of those fighting the blazes inside buildings. Such devices, said Joe, could have saved his son’s life.
“That sounds so basic,” he said. “It’s a minimal cost. You ought to better the tools, not cheapen the tools, because basically it saves lives.” Graffagnino’s family also took time to remember Joseph.
“I didn’t just lose a son, I lost a best friend,” said his mother, Rosemarie. “A day didn’t go by where he didn’t call me.”
He is remembered as a great cook, a handyman, and most of all, as a devoted father.
“He truly was the best,” Linda said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better husband, and I couldn’t have asked for a better father. He was all about his family.”
“He gave the kids baths, he cut their nails, he cleaned their ears. He did everything that a mother would do, and he did it almost better than I did,” she said. “He was known for that – that’s what he did,” she said.