As the investigation into what caused the deadly five-alarm apartment building fire in Brooklyn continues, fire department union leaders blamed recent staff reductions for the amount of time it took to fight Saturday night’s blaze.
Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy told 1010 WINS on Sunday that the hundreds left homeless after the Flatbush fire along with injured firefighters and the death 64-year-old Mary Feagin was “directly attributable to staffing cuts at the FDNY by [Mayor] Mike Bloomberg.”
About 200 firefighters were called to the gusty scene and it took them seven hours to extinguish the fire.
Under a now-expired agreement, 60 engine companies in the busiest city areas had five-person crews. Currently, all engine companies in the city are staffed with four-person crews. City officials, including Mayor Bloomberg, had argued that the cuts were necessary to prevent the closing of firehouses.
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I don’t know about this particular fire, but it has been proven that the famous burning of the Bronx was primarily the result of cuts to public safety in the Lindsay and Beame administrations. Bloomberg may be repeating that error.