NYC firefighter who stepped over dead bodies on 9/11 forced to retire because ...

NYC firefighter who stepped over dead bodies on 9/11 forced to retire because ...
NYC firefighter who stepped over dead bodies on 9/11 forced to retire because ...

A NYC firefighter who worked at Ground Zero on 9/11 is now putting in for retirement because he doesn't want a COVID vaccine, having already recovered from the virus.  

Gary Debiase, 55, who served with Ladder 109 in Staten Island for 23-and-a-half years, told DailyMail.com that he still loves his job. But he added that outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio's edict forcing all municipal city workers to have the shot by November 1 forced him out.

Debiase told DailyMail.com: 'I wanna go back but I don’t want a shot. We’re in a position where we can go without for a few more weeks. Forcing someone to take a vaccine is coercion. 

'I’ll absolutely go back to work if they let me... Everybody is ready to work. Nobody wants to go home.'

'My wife and I are in a position where we could hold out a few weeks but after that I'm going to put in for my retirement and that's it. 

'I don't want to retire. But they won't let me work. They're saying "you can't go to a school", "you can't go to a hospital", "you can't do this, you can't do that."' 

Gary Debiase, 55 (pictured right), who served with L 109 for 23-and-a-half years told DailyMail.com of stepping over dead bodies on the day of the 9/11 attacks. He refuses to get the COVID-19 vaccine, and was sent home from work on Monday as a result. Anna Rose Carpiento, 54 (left) has been out of her job as a sonographer at Bellevue Hospital for five weeks after she, too, refused the jab. The pair said they felt like 'second-class citizens'

Gary Debiase, 55 (pictured right), who served with L 109 for 23-and-a-half years told DailyMail.com of stepping over dead bodies on the day of the 9/11 attacks. He refuses to get the COVID-19 vaccine, and was sent home from work on Monday as a result. Anna Rose Carpiento, 54 (left) has been out of her job as a sonographer at Bellevue Hospital for five weeks after she, too, refused the jab. The pair said they felt like 'second-class citizens'

Both he and his wife, Anna Rose Carpiento, a sonographer at public Bellevue Hospital, lost their city jobs after refusing the jab, and say they feel like they are being treated as 'second class citizens' because they're unvaccinated. 

Speaking at an anti-vaccine mandate in Manhattan on Wednesday, Debiase told of stepping over dead bodies on the day of the 9/11 attacks: 'I was knee deep in ash, and the chief said ‘if you step over anyone, see if they’re alive. If they’re not, leave them.’

On September 12, 2001, he went straight back to work despite the apocalyptical scene he described.

But on Monday, he was sent home from his Staten Island firehouse when he didn't show up with a vaccine card in-hand.  

'I wanna go back but I don’t want a shot. We’re in a position where we can go without for a few more weeks,' Debiase (pictured) told DailyMail.com. 'Forcing someone to take a vaccine is coercion'

'I wanna go back but I don’t want a shot. We’re in a position where we can go without for a few more weeks,' Debiase (pictured) told DailyMail.com. 'Forcing someone to take a vaccine is coercion'

 Firefighters told DailyMail.com that at least 150 other retirement-age firefighters were spurred to hang up their gear for good.

As of today, 21 percent of New York's 11,000-strong fire department - approximately 2,310 people - are unvaccinated, and have been sent home. 

That is a two per cent drop from the 23 percent of firefighters who hadn't been jabbed on Monday, suggesting that de Blasio's mandate is having some effect.  

It is unclear whether firefighters who have applied for exemptions due to religious and other concerns are included in that number - their claims are currently being processed by the city. 

Firefighters said that the city of New York was asking those who opted out of vaccination due to their religion to provide their place of worship on paperwork, then calling those establishments to verify that they were indeed parishoners.  

As of today, 21 percent of New York's 11,000-strong fire department - approximately 2,310 people - are unvaccinated, and have been sent home

As of today, 21 percent of New York's 11,000-strong fire department - approximately 2,310 people - are unvaccinated, and have been sent home

Debiase, a life-long Staten Island resident, told DailyMail.com that he would get the jab if it were a 'real vaccine' - one that would come with a guarantee that you wouldn't get sick - and fears the precedent that could be set by the city's mandate. 

'In the end, if we don't win this fight, they will do whatever they want from now on,' he said amid a crowd of protestors at City Hall Park. 'Mandates will be the new norm - Now you do this, now you do that.'

Debiase's wife,

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