U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer is demanding the federal government rethink denial of benefits to families of two local firefighters who he says clearly died in the line of duty.
The senator's intervention comes as the family of a third -- Albany firefighter Theodore Abriel, who was felled by a heart attack on the job in February -- prepares to apply for benefits under the same law.
Schumer, who has already attacked the Justice Department's handling of the benefit program in general, has sent a letter to the division in charge of the program, calling for a fair review of the families' cases.
The agency has defended its record, stressing that every application is thoroughly reviewed. The Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act was passed in 2003 to extend death benefits to the families of emergency workers stricken by stroke or heart attack in the line of duty, making them eligible for up to $300,000.
Rensselaer Assistant Fire Chief Mike Falkouski, 59, suffered a stroke and died in January 2005 after responding in a heavy snow storm to a report of an explosion. Elsmere Fire Chief Kevin Shea, 54, died of a heart attack in January 2004 in the parking lot of the Elsmere fire station, just minutes after returning from a call at a nursing home.
But the Bureau of Justice Assistance, which runs the Hometown Heroes program, denied their families' claims, along with 36 others out of the first 40 it received. The bureau did not announce it had approved any until it came under fire this spring for the denials.
As of Wednesday, the department had approved four, denied 40, and roughly 200 applications were still pending. A spokeswoman said the agency does not discuss individual cases. The department has said all claims undergo several detailed reviews.
Schumer joined calls for an independent probe of the program's handling in early April, when the influential New York Democrat was already criticizing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales daily for the controversial firings of eight federal prosecutors.
Schumer said both families have appealed the rejections. He sent a letter to Domingo Herraiz, director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, in support of their claims. "The initial rejection was flat wrong," Schumer said in a prepared statement.
Sam Fresina, president of the Albany Firefighters Union, said the union has been helping Abriel's family meticulously prepare its paperwork. Abriel, 44, suffered heart attack while fighting a South End high-rise blaze Feb. 19.
"There isn't a better case out there than Ted's," he said Wednesday. "In our minds, there is no doubt whatsoever, but due to the scrutiny and ... due to the many rejections ... we feel it's necessary to make sure every possible aspect of that day is written down properly."
Republished with permission of the Times Union.
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