CARL CAMPANILE
The New York POst

A "disabled" city firefighter is still battling blazes while he rakes in a taxpayer-funded pension.

Retired FDNY Lt. John Brown, who left the department after 9/11 with a tax-free $82,000 disability pension, has responded to hundreds of fires in his Long Island hometown since leaving the FDNY, The Post has learned.

Brown, 53, a 24-year veteran assigned to Ladder Co. 165 in St. Albans, Queens, was awarded a three-quarter disability pension in September 2002 after the FDNY determined he had developed reactive airway disease, an asthma-like condition, after toiling at Ground Zero.

Yet Brown has been found fit to serve as a New Hyde Park fire commissioner and firefighter, a Post probe found.

Brown joins other city firefighters revealed by The Post to be performing Herculean feats after retiring with three-quarter disability pensions - including a former lieutenant who now competes in triathlons and long-distance runs and another ex-firefighter who takes part in martial-arts bouts.

Records, obtained under the Freedom of Information law, show that Brown:

- Responded to 61 percent of New Hyde Park fire calls in 2003, months after his FDNY retirement.

- Answered 38 to 48 percent of the town's fire calls from 2004 to 2009.

- Responded to at least 41 fire calls this year.

- Is designated a "Class A" firefighter, meaning he can go inside buildings to fight blazes.

- Gets thousands of dollars in pension-like benefits from New Hyde Park on top of his FDNY disability pension.

Former New Hyde Park Fire Chief Anthony Vaglica refused to permit Brown to fight fires when he learned of his FDNY disability pension in 2005, ordering him to see the Long Island department's doctor.

Unlike the FDNY, however, New Hyde Park's doctors cleared Brown as fit to fight fires.

"For years and years, Brown has been cheating the system. I call it fraud," Vaglica said. "If he's fit for duty here in New Hyde Park, he's fit for duty in New York City."

Brown insists he's doing the right thing.

"It's my own decision to go into fires at my own risk with a volunteer organization," Brown said. "I am a fireman. I still believe I can do the job."

He said that he choked on toxic debris when responding to the 9/11 attacks and that he spent 40 to 50 days on the pile.

Brown said he hadn't wanted to retire and was actually on a list to be promoted to captain. But a series of FDNY breathing tests showed he had diminished lung capacity.

"My hand was being forced because they would not return me to full-time duty," he said.

FDNY spokesman Frank Gribbon defended the pension review. He said a three-person board approves disability pensions based on results of medical exams.

"You can't fake it," he said.

Related
'Disabled' FDNY lt. fighting fires on LI

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November 15, 2010