Youngstown Professional Firefighters lAFF Local 312 has issued a letter posted on its Facebook page recommending union firefighters not enter the Realty Building to retrieve personal belongings following the deadly explosion in downtown Youngstown on May 28. 

IAFF Local 312 President Jon Racco said he and other Executive Board members have been left out of any discussion regarding the Realty Building. However, he did say he had been told by union members that some members were asked to enter the building on Wednesday morning. 

Racco told 21 News that Fire Chief Finley solicited certain members, asking them to do this not as part of their job but as volunteers. 

Racco said, "We don’t have volunteers in our department. We are paid professional firefighters who have fought for collective bargaining agreements. Asking our members to risk their lives and volunteer in a non-life-threatening situation is inconceivable."

The letter reads:

-----

July 6, 2024

Chief Finley,

On July 3, Local 312 members and leadership first learned through media reports that you were going to have first responders enter the Realty Tower building next week to retrieve resident personal belongings. Since we have been continuously fielding questions from our members and media. Because you have not discussed any plans for entry into Realty Tower with Local 312 or the members that would be making entry, allow this letter to serve as notice that Local 312 believes entrance into the Realty Tower building poses a significant threat to the life and safety of Local 312 members, and as such, we have advised the members against entry into the building.

Following the explosion, engineering experts declared that the building was not structurally stable. Since that time, no attempt to stabilize the building has taken place. It has been left for over a month to endure the powerful force of gravity with the interior of the building and collapsed basement exposed to the elements. Realty Tower is likely more unstable now than it has ever been. Crews of firefighters and equipment carrying out bags of luggage could be all it takes for a partial interior or even global collapse of the ren1airung structure. There are 1,000 pound pieces of concrete in that wreckage that are dangling from 1" rebar. If one of those pieces falls it will kill a firefighter the same as it would anyone else. Airborne asbestos particles have also been identified inside the structure along with all the other known carcinogens that become airborne when a building collapse occurs.

Our firefighters are mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters. The day of the explosion you said on the news, "Life above all else." We agree. Entry into Realty Tower right now is a clear threat to the life and safety of any person, including the YFD personnel that you are apparently going to ask to make entry.

That you would ask Local 312 members to make entry into Realty Towers without even discussing your plans with the members' representatives is dangerous itself. While you may intensely dislike Local 312 leadership, that should be put aside when it comes to the safety of the men and women of the YFD. By soliciting our members to volunteer for this task when they are off duty, the city and property owner would assume no liability for then, and all the risks associated with this work would be shifted to the firefighters themselves. They will not be eligible for workers compensation if injured, line of duty death benefits if
killed or disability benefits if they are diagnosed with a related issues down the road.

To be clear, Local 312 members have an immense an1ount of sympathy for the residents, employees, businesses and families that have been affected by this horrible tragedy. Our commitment to them should be obvious from the actions of our members on the day the tragedy occurred. Asking our members to place their lives at risk in that building again, 6 weeks later, for anything other than to save a life is unconscionable.

Local 312 Executive Board

-----

312 Secretary-Treasurer Christopher Weaver said asking firefighters to volunteer to enter a building deemed unsafe is not a good situation to ask them to risk the loss of life for personal belongings.

In response to the letter, Chief Barry Finley tells 21 News "If Push comes to shove, then I will do it myself. If they don't want to help the citizens of Youngstown, I will do it. I think tenants who can't get back in their houses deserve some of their belongings."

As part of the demolition set to begin Thursday, the building is being stabilized, according to Youngstown Live.

Meanwhile, tenants of Realty Towers will be able to go into the building Wednesday, July 10 to retrieve belongings before work to bring the building down begins.