Fire Department Weighs Mayor's Proposed Cuts
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As the city's financial crisis heats up, the mayor announced plans Wednesday to shut down some fire companies during night hours and cut back on firemen’s training. NY1’s Amanda Farinacci filed the following report. Faced with a city deficit that is estimated to reach $4 billion by 2010, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced plans Wednesday to shut down five engine companies during night hours come January. The mayor said such a measure would save money, but did not explain exactly how.
“I would like to have a fire house on every street, I would like to have an engine and a ladder in every one of those, but that's not the real world,” said Bloomberg.
Fire engine companies put water on a fire and respond to medical emergencies, while fire ladder companies conduct search and rescue operations. There are more engine companies than ladder companies in the city, and their total of 198 companies means that they are more closely clustered.
The mayor said that if one engine is shut overnight, another one nearby can respond without having much of an effect on response times.
“The whole idea is to minimize operational impact. We can't say it will have absolutely none but we want it to have as insignificant an impact as is possible,” said Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta.
The commissioner said the aim would be to keep the closings out of residential areas.
But President Jack McDonnell of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association warned Wednesday that closing firehouses over night in the winter will pose a serious threat to public safety.
“An engine company closing down in a neighborhood is going to decrease the medical response in that community and also the fire protection in that community,” said McDonnell.
The UFOA said it is going to explore other ways to save money without shutting fire houses.
“The mayor has accepted that if we can come up with any alternatives that would generate the savings that are necessary, that they'll welcome our recommendations,” said McDonnell.
The mayor also plans to save money by reversing a $12 million investment the Fire Department made last year in its fire academy when it increased the training time for probationary firefighters from 18 weeks to 23 weeks. Such a measure created 400 extra hours devoted to rope training, responding in high-rise buildings and counter-terrorism, among other things.
Now that the training is back down to 18 weeks, it calls into question how necessary the extra training was in the first place.