Residents, Congressman-elect Michael McMahon and firefighters on Staten Island rallied Saturday in support of one of the firehouses slated to close overnight to help close the city's budget gap.

Hundreds gather outside Engine 161 near South Beach to say the city is putting lives at risk by closing a firehouse that makes 1,800 runs a year between the hours of 6 p.m. and 9 a.m.

"I think it's a real, real big mistake," said resident Jennifer Santana. "Big mistake, because they are so needed over here."

"It's a safety issue, a major safety issue," said another local. "If somebody's house should catch on fire here, the other fire departments that now have to cover this area at night are busy, what are the people here supposed to do?"

The head of the firefighters' union says any closures will hurt response times.

"This neighborhood has expanded greatly, it needs more protection, not less," said Uniformed Firefighter's Association President Stephen Cassidy. "More fires happen at night, more fatalities happen at night, that's the department's own statistics and yet they chose to close this company at night. It makes no sense, the amount of money they're saving is minuscule."

The closings come as the mayor ordered all city agencies to cut 7 percent from their budgets, a month after ordering a previous 5 percent cut.

In another attempt to cut costs, the fire department announced Wednesday an indefinite hiring freeze on new recruits.

Protesters hope the firehouse closings will be reversed, especially given the demographics of the area.

"We definitely, we need to have this kept open 24/7. We have 65 percent residential seniors in the area," said Joe McCalister of the South Beach Civic Association.

"This residential response area, it consists of facilities that house elderly, have special needs children, have dense, dense residential buildings, housing projects, the Verrazano bridge," said Donald Ruland of the Uniformed Firefighters Association. "These lives are being shortchanged for no real savings."

The other firehouses set to lose overnight staffing are Engine 271 in Brooklyn, Ladder 53 in the Bronx and Engine 4 in Lower Manhattan.

The closings are set to go into effect January 17.