New York- A third firefighter was suspended in the growing Bronx firehouse scandal yesterday as the FDNY moved to ax one of the Bravest ensnared in the probe.
Firefighter Anthony Loscuito, 27, allegedly joined a group of colleagues who had sex with a woman inside the Engine 75/Ladder 33 firehouse in the Bronx, officials said.
Loscuito is the son of retired firefighter Sal Loscuito, who was the driver of former Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen.
The day he joined the Fire Department in October 2001, Anthony Loscuito told the Daily News it was a dream come true.
“I grew up watching my dad,” he said then. “He would sometimes take me to fires and tell us stories, so I’ve wanted this since I was little. It’s what I’m meant to do.”
Loscuito became the third firefighter yanked from the so-called Animal House firehouse since the scandal broke last week.
Meanwhile, FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta moved to can Christian Waugh, 30, after the firefighter refused to answer questions during an interview with the city’s Department of Investigation.
“Christian Waugh walked into DOI essentially saying, ‘I plead the Fifth. I’m not cooperating,'” said an FDNY source. “Now he can say goodbye to his job.”
The decision to fire Waugh was announced shortly after DOI officials made the unusual move of publicly asking the FDNY to “terminate or suspend anyone who obviously stonewalls the investigation or lies.”
The DOI’s request stems from frustrations investigators experienced while digging for answers in the Oct. 15 Staten Island Ferry crash and an alcohol-fueled brawl at a Staten Island firehouse on New Year’s Eve.
The latest shame to hit the FDNY came when a 34-year-old Staten Island woman claimed last week she was gang-raped by on-duty firefighters in the Morris Heights firehouse.
The woman later recanted, saying the sex was consensual, then returned to the rape account. She recently checked into a psychiatric hospital.
The mother of two has bragged about having sex with hundreds of firefighters and cops since 9/11, investigators said. The woman has a history of mental problems, according to her estranged husband, who is seeking custody of their young children.
Yesterday, The News revealed a series of lurid and desperate E-mails sent to and from her home computer, detailing some of her liaisons.
One of the suspended firefighters, Tony DeLuca, 34, a married father from Long Island, met the woman in an Internet chat room and invited her to the firehouse, officials have said.
On Monday, Scoppetta vowed to fire any firefighter involved in sexual activity in the Bronx firehouse and to come down hard on supervisors.
Nine other firefighters and three supervisors have been placed on desk duty pending completion of the investigation.
DOI spokeswoman Emily Gest warned yesterday that any firefighter who lies to investigators faces criminal charges.
Loscuito could not be reached for comment last night. No one was home at the Spencer Estates, the Bronx, address listed in his name, and more than a dozen neighbors said no one matching his description lived there.