The following is a WCBSTV report:
There was an ugly war of words Tuesday between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the fire unions over the impact budget cuts had on fighting a deadly fire in Brooklyn.
CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer has obtained dispatch tapes that reveal the difficulty firefighters had battling the inferno.
Bloomberg weighed in for the first time about Saturday’s deadly Flatbush apartment that raged out of control, the fire unions have said, because of his budget cuts.
“It has nothing to do with the number of people on an engine, which is what they’re talking about,” Bloomberg said, adding when told that firefighters had to run eight lengths of hose to the fifth floor, “Miss, I’m sure they’re going to say that. That’s part of what they have to say when were in the middle of trying to find ways to do more with less.”
Dispatch tapes and records obtained by Kramer show that there was a problem getting water on the fire and that after battling the fire for an hour and 23 minutes firefighters knew that there was little hope of saving the building.
“All members have been removed from the roof of the building. All interior members have been moved to the floor below the fire … The fire is still doubtful,” an official is heard saying on the tape.
Union officials said that’s FDNY lingo for “We’ve given up. The building can’t be saved.” They said that staff cuts ordered by Mayor Bloomberg three weeks ago delayed them from getting water on the fire for at least five critical minutes.
“They could have contained this fire, kept it to a one-alarm fire. Instead, the windows failed. The fire blew them down the stairs and the woman died on the top floor,” said James Slevin, the vice president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association.
The fire grew to five alarms, left one person dead, 60 firefighters injured and 100 residents homeless. Union officials said it took them longer to run 450 feet of hose to the fire because Bloomberg removed a fifth man from the engine companies.
Was the fifth man critical?
“We know that if they would have got up there quicker they could have made an attack on the fire,” Uniformed Fire Officers Association Vice President and FDNY Battalion Chief George Belnavis said.
The unions are furious with the mayor.
“All I have to say is what is more important, okay, saving lives or saving money?” UFOA delegate Lt. James McGowan said.
While this fire may be out, the fight between the mayor and the fire unions looks like it will be blazing for weeks and months to come.
City Council Fire Committee Chairwoman Elizabeth Crowley said the mayor’s budget cuts are “forcing the FDNY to roll the dice on public safety.”
(Source: WCBSTV)
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One Response
The mayor is a smart man.But,even intelligent people are human and make mistakes in this case he srewed up pretty bad. WHAT IS MOST TROUBLING TO ME IS NOT THAT HE MADE A MISTAKE BUT THAT HE REFUSES TO ADMIT IT AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS OWN MISTAKES—I THOUGHT HE HAD MORE CHARACTER THAN THAT……APPARENTLY HE DOES NOT–TOO BAD—TOO BAD FOR ALL THE UNFORTUNATE CITIZENS OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK!