Story of fatal church fire is coming together
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Bending forward, Ronald Stefanakis tenderly tucked two red roses into a hole at the top of the large, pale cornerstone of Ebenezer Baptist Church, adjusting them until the blossoms stood up just right.
Keith Srakocic, Associated PressRonald Stefanakis walks away from the ruins of Ebenezer Baptist Church yesterday, where his twin brother, Pittsburgh firefighter Richard Stefanakis, died Saturday when a belltower collapsed as firefighters were extinguishing hotspots.
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The inscribed rock survived the fire that destroyed the Hill District church Saturday; the flowers represented the men who did not.
"I wanted to bring a symbol of our love," Stefanakis explained yesterday afternoon. "A rose for my brother and the other firefighter who passed away."
It was his twin, Richard, who perished alongside Battalion Chief Charles Brace when the church's 118-foot bell tower collapsed on top of them on Saturday. The men were standing in the church's vestibule to douse hot spots when wood, brick and stone came crashing down.
"He loved being a fireman. He was proud to be," Stefanakis, 51, of Baldwin Borough said, struggling to control his voice. "He knew the dangers."
As Stefanakis spoke, authorities in hard hats crossed Devilliers Street behind him, bearing away yet another piece of debris. A pile of rubble stood behind the remains of the church. Dust from pulverized bricks stained the sidewalk red.
Firefighter Kevin Garofalo, who was standing next to Stefanakis when the tower collapsed, reflected on his own brush with death.
The two worked together at Engine Company 3 in the Strip District. Stefanakis, of Knoxville, had nearly 30 years on the job. Garofalo, 42, of Carrick, joined the Fire Bureau in 1997 after leaving his job at a cable company.
About 9:30 a.m. Saturday, as the partners were briefed by Deputy Chief David Manfredo, they watched as a backdraft blew four firefighters out the door and knocked a fifth off a ladder.
"That was a rude awakening," Garofalo said.
They spent the next several hours battling the fire from outside. Shortly after noon, with the bulk of it under control, they went inside along with Brace and other firefighters to spray burning embers with water.
The group climbed a short flight of steps, which brought them to a vestibule.
"I looked into the area in which we were, in the vestibule. It looked pretty secure," Garofalo said. "I didn't see any cracks in the wall. There was no indication. The floor was solid. There was no reason to believe anything would happen right there and then."
As Garofalo recalled, Stefanakis stood about five feet into the vestibule, gripping the nozzle of an orange 1 3/4 -inch hose. Brace, 55, of Brookline, stood to the right.
"[Stefanakis] was holding the nozzle, and I was just backing him up," Garofalo said. "We were just looking around. Pretty much, we had all the hot spots knocked down. I heard a slight rumbling. I looked around and didn't know what it was. All of a sudden I saw this beam slicing through the roof. I just glanced at it. Then a couple of smaller pieces of wood started flying. I just saw a bunch of other stuff crashing down, and I just dove for the door."
Something hit him in the back of his leg, knocking him down. A board smashed into his shoulders, pinning him in a doorway between the vestibule and the top of the stairs. Bricks rained down, crushing his hand. They pounded his helmet, cracking it. They dented his oxygen tank. He covered up as best he could.
"It was like being hit by a sledgehammer," Garofalo said. "My life flashed before my eyes right there. I thought I was done."
Then he heard the voice of a fellow firefighter asking if anyone needed help. Garofalo piped up.
"I knew I barely made it out," he said.
For investigators, the pace was dramatically slower. Ron Graziano, chief of the Bureau of Building Inspection, surmised that all four spires had a vertical metal framework along with horizontal support beams. It was this horizontal bridging, Graziano hypothesized, that took the brunt of the heat from the fire and failed, leading to the bell tower crumbling.
"No one was going to predict that collapse. It's like the World Trade Center -- no one's going to predict it would come down when it did."
The city's arson squad, assisted by the Allegheny County fire marshal's office and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives continued their work to determine the cause and origin of the five-alarm fire.
Early reports of a smoking electrical outlet in the church kitchen gave rise to speculation that the fire was accidental. But arson Capt. Francis Deleonibus was not prepared to say anything definitive yesterday as his team sorted through rubble looking for burn patterns and indications of charring.
Early Sunday, workers using a 150-foot crane parked on Wylie Street at the church's entrance knocked down the church's fourth remaining spire by slamming a 3,500-pound metal bucket into it. Still sound, the tower took two or three booming hits before giving way. Only a vertical metal support beam remained standing upright.
Investigators worked without architectural or electrical blueprints and diagrams; information had been found for only the church's three-story addition in the mid-1990s. There was information that the building might have two sub-basements, but no one could say for sure. Graziano determined that there were no building code violations.
A piece of heavy equipment called a Gradall was used to poke a hole in the side of the building on Devilliers where the main electrical distribution panel was located so authorities could dig down to the basement -- an unsettling task.
"As I climb down in there, I look around. I was here through the recovery efforts," Deleonibus said. "I think if it wasn't them, it could be me or someone else, but that's the chance we take."
There was little second-guessing yesterday about the firefighters' decision to enter the church.
"It's a judgment call. You look at a building that's concrete. Where's it going?" said firefighter Charles Lenz, who is on the union's occupational health and safety committee. "Every burning building we go into, it's being weakened by the minute by the fire."
As of yesterday, four of the 28 injured firefighters remained hospitalized. Manfredo, who suffered facial fractures, was released.
Over the weekend, a debriefing team visited the men in the hospital. Firefighter James Bayster, a fire union trustee and member of the team, said the survivors won't feel the full impact of the incident until after Thursday's funeral Mass.
"The funeral will bring it all home," Bayster said, speaking at the bustling union office in the West End where preparations were being made for the Mass.
"You'll think, 'How close was I?' And that's going to affect them. ... These people may go out next week and have to face it all over again. Same scenario -- just a different part of the city."
Also at the union office was battalion Chief Guy Zumpano, the fire bureau's official liaison to the families of Stefanakis and Brace, 55, of Brookline. Zumpano and Lt. Ed Nemeth had the same job in 1995, after a Valentine's Day blaze killed three firefighters.
"It's so hard when we lose somebody. It's not if we get hurt, it's not if we perish. It's when," Zumpano said. "It just absolutely breaks my heart because each and every one of us knows somebody could be sitting with my wife, my children and my grandchildren."
Zumpano described both families as "overwrought."
In a written statement, the Braces called Charles Brace "our hero every day of his life."
Zumpano said the wives of both Brace and Stefanakis visited the scene of the fire. He met with Stefanakis' wife, Stephanie, beforehand and escorted her.
"It was rough," he said. "It was rough."
Annie O'Neill, Post-GazetteHill District artist Jorge Myers shows Pittsburgh Deputy Fire Chief John Gourley some lumber given to him by firefighters salvaged from Ebenezer Baptist Church. Myers plans to use the wood to make a memorial to the historic church and the two firefighters who died fighting the blaze.
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First Published March 16, 2004 12:00 am
