Judge awards death benefit for 9/11 volunteer firefighter

A judge in New York has awarded death benefits to the family of an attorney and longtime volunteer firefighter who grabbed medical bag and rushed into the World Trade Center on 9/11:

    NEW YORK -- No one ordered Glenn Winuk to grab a medical bag and rush into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. He was not in uniform, and he made his living as a lawyer, not an EMT.

But the longtime volunteer firefighter did it anyway _ and now a judge has sided with his family in ruling that he died in the line of duty and that his relatives are eligible for a $250,000 death benefit for public safety officers killed on the job.

In a ruling Wednesday, Judge Marian Blank Horn of Federal Court of Claims called the Justice Department's decision to deny the family a benefit payment "arbitrary."

The Justice Department said that Winuk didn't qualify because he had let his full-duty status in the Jericho Volunteer Fire Department on Long Island lapse in 1998. The benefit, the department said, was intended for active duty personnel only [AP]

It's nice to be reminded that sometimes, just sometimes, justice and reason prevail. May Mr. Winuk rest in peace, and may his family derive some solace and security from this belated recognition of his heroism.

Comments

[voxpop]

Linday, Thanks.
You are enormously restorative of faith in humanity.