Tribute, Or Bad Taste?

Some New York City firefighters are criticizing Motorola Inc. for using photographs of their colleagues in its annual report despite some rescuers having said that they had problems with the company's radios on Sept. 11.

Firefighter Hisham Tawfiq of Engine 69 in Harlem is pictured on the report's cover with a Motorola radio attached to his gear, and he and recently retired firefighter Jules Segot are pictured inside the report with Motorola radios visible.

"It's an absolute disgrace for Motorola to use New York City firefighters to advertise their company," Firefighter Steve Cassidy, the union delegate for Engine 236 in Brooklyn, told the Daily News. "Motorola should not be bragging that New York City firefighters are using their product when it was proven completely inadequate."

The Fire Department recalled 2,700 handheld digital Motorola radios in March 2001 after receiving complaints about them. Old Motorola radios were put back into place, and firefighters reported problems with them during rescue operations at the World Trade Center, the News said.

A Motorola spokeswoman, Jennifer Weyrauch, said that the photographs in the annual report were merely intended to honor firefighters who died at the trade center.

"I'm shocked that someone would be upset by this," Weyrauch said. "The annual report is not an ad for Motorola - it's a document, an important document, that is only disseminated to stockholders. It's not an advertising piece."

Fire department officials said the firefighters were not paid but that the company had permission to use the photographs.

"This should not be perceived as an endorsement," Fire Department spokesman Frank Gribbon said.

The department lost 343 firefighters at the trade center, and officials have attempted to figure out how many didn't hear the order to evacuate. Officials have cautioned that even those who heard the command might have ignored it because they were trying to help fellow firefighters.

"There were firefighters who did receive the communication to evacuate — I've talked to them," then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said in December. "Did all the radios work? I don't know the answer to that."

A booster system for two-way radios was installed on one of the shorter buildings at the trade center after the 1993 terrorist bombing there. But officials have said that the system failed after a 3-foot antenna was taken out by falling debris Sept. 11.

The fire commissioner had withdrawn the newer digital radios earlier in the year after firefighters union officials complained that they had not been properly tested and had failed to work in one fire. The digital radios were intended, among other things, to work better in high rises.