By Lou Michel
The Buffalo News
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Two separate settlements totaling $4.1 million for the families of two Buffalo firefighters who perished in an August 2009 fire at a Genesee Street building are expected to be approved by the Common Council in early April.
Survivors of the younger firefighter, Jonathan S. Croom, 34, are set to receive $3 million that will go to supporting the children he left behind. The family of Lt. Charles W. “Chip” McCarthy, 45, is to receive the balance, $1.1 million.
Croom was engaged to be married and the father of an infant daughter and a second child his fiancée was expecting. McCarthy was married and the father of three adult children. The settlements also include health insurance coverage for Croom’s children – Johanna, 4, and Johnny, 3 – and guarantees from the city to implement safety procedures at fire scenes to try to prevent the same type of confusion that contributed to the deaths of the firefighters, according to attorneys representing the families.
Full story: $4.1 million in settlements likely in 2009 deaths of two Buffalo firefighters