Daughter of slain FDNY firefighter writes screenplay exploring 'Black Sunday' tragedy

Katreana Bellew, an NYU dramatic writing student, is the daughter of John Bellew, an FDNY firefighter who responded to the 2005 fire at an apartment building on East 178th Street.

Diane Caruso and Bob Doda

Jun 6, 2023, 10:03 PM

Updated 552 days ago

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A Pearl River woman is aiming to turn her more than 100 page screenplay about a Bronx fire that killed her father into a movie.
Katreana Bellew, an NYU dramatic writing student, is the daughter of John Bellew, an FDNY firefighter who responded to the 2005 fire at an apartment building on East 178th Street. Inside the building were illegal partitions, and Bellew and Lt. Curtis Meyran were forced to leap from a fourth-floor window after becoming trapped.
"In a weird way, I thought it was going to be a lot harder than it was. I thought it was going to be really emotional,” she said of writing "Black Sunday: Trial by Fire." "The odds were 100% against them."
Her story dives into that day, the legal proceedings that followed and includes points of view from her mother and a firefighter who survived.
Bellew says she is looking for help funding the film to make her vision into reality.
Learn more about “Black Sunday: Trial by Fire” at JohnBellew.com.