NYC Fire Fighters Family to Get Death Benefits

[falcon]

The US "Justice" Department has fought against the award of death benefits for this guy since 9/11. In a day when illegal aliens have over-run the country and where terrorists cross the Mexican border at will; the US "Justice" Department hadnothing better to than fight this family. i gotta puke.

"NEW YORK - After a five-year fight, the U.S. government has dropped its effort to prevent a volunteer firefighter killed at the World Trade Center from receiving a federal death benefit for public safety officers who die on the job.
The decision is a belated victory for the family of Glenn Winuk, a longtime member of the Jericho Volunteer Fire Department who rushed to the burning towers on Sept. 11, 2001, to tend to victims of the terrorist attack.
Winuk, 40, was working at his Manhattan law office the morning of the attacks, but he grabbed a medical bag and raced to pitch in with the rescue effort. He died when the skyscrapers collapsed; when his body was found in the rubble, months later, he was wearing surgical gloves and a stethoscope.

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The Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Assistance fought his family's effort to collect a $250,000 payment due to police officers, firefighters and other government emergency workers killed in the line of duty.
The agency argued that the benefit was intended only for active-duty public safety officers, and that Winuk didn't qualify because he hadn't been on regular duty with his volunteer department on Long Island since 1998.
The turning point in the case came when a judge on the Federal Court of Claims sided with the family last June, ruling that the government's denial of the benefit had been arbitrary.

'Fight has gone on too long'
The long court battle finally ended on Jan. 10, after the Office of the Solicitor General decided to drop its last appeal in the case."

[Aught Six]

So will all the othernon-government volunteers get federal death benefits?

[Charlie P]

Proably spent more fighting it then the family will get.

If they guy wasn't withthe fire department since 1998 shouldn't they award death benefits to anyone that went and helped in thiis tragedy?

[Charlie P]

He died when the skyscrapers collapsed; when his body was found in the rubble, months later, he was wearing surgical gloves and a stethoscope.

Seems like he died doing what he didn't get paid to do for years, once a fire fighter alway's a fire fighter?

[huntingirl89]

Its sad that volunteers, who often go through the same exact training and qualifications as paid, don't get any of the benefits. Here for the first time they are offering tax breaks to volunteer firemen becausethey very often buytheir own equipment. However, I am intrigued to know about the fire company's side in all of this, since companies have their own blanket and insurance policies. Here, any NYS firemen can respond to anyone else's call with the permission of the Chief of the presiding company, and then follows the orders and acts of a member of said company. In the meantime, you are still covered under your company's insurance policy. On 9/11, they didn't turn anyone away who was coming in to help, although there was little to no accountability system.

[rockyshamrock]

not sure if i agree or disagree with this. but what i do know is that I'm a volunteer fire fighter and EMT-b. we do the exact same things as a paid firefighter does. we put ourselves in just as much danger as they do. we give up a couple hundred hours of our lives every year to help make a difference in our community. be it the training we do or the actual calls we go on. it can take up to 5 hours or more at a fire some times. if the call comes in at 2 am and we get done at 4 am allot of us have to go home get cleaned up and go to work at our real paying job. we get medical and fire calls any time of day or night just like the paid departments do.i don't know of any volunteer fire dept that pays there firefighters for there time. people that have lived in a big town or city their whole lives will never understand what really goes on in a small rural community. we have to go threw the same training as the paid departments do.

[Charlie P]

I think the point the Justice department was argueing was that he hadn't beena memberof fire department since 1998, not that he was a memeber of a volunteer squad.