A report released today by Public Advocate Bill de Blasio shows the cuts to 20 fire companies in Mayor Bloomberg’s Executive Budget will seriously imperil emergency response times. According to the report, 18 of these companies will exceed a national 4-minute standard after cuts are implemented–some by over a full minute. The National Fire Protection Association urges a 4-minute response to prevent fires from spreading beyond a single room, after which the risk of civilian death triples and property damage increases more than eight-fold.
“The neighborhoods targeted by these cuts will see their safety go up in smoke,” said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. “If the Mayor succeeds in cutting these companies, some communities won’t meet the response times needed in places like Fargo, North Dakota, let alone a city where we need to fight fires on the upper floors of big apartment buildings.”
Council Member Elizabeth Crowley (D-30, Queens), Chair of the Fire & Criminal Justice Committee stated, “In addition to the findings in this study, the FDNY is not counting the time the 911-caller is spending with the 911 operator which could be up to two minutes. Response times are significantly higher than what the Administration is reporting–and these false response times are being used to justify closing fire companies. The Administration’s policy for reporting response times is misleading, inaccurate and dangerous.”
The Public Advocate’s report is based on response time increases estimated by the FDNY. The National Fire Protection Association standard is modeled on responding to a fire at a two-story, single-family home where firefighting can commence soon after crews arrive. In a dense city like New York, firefighters require additional minutes to ascend multi-story buildings, making any response times above the national standard even more alarming.
(Source: MyFoxNY)
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One Response
I agree and disagree at the same time…the closing of ALL 20 will impact the response time of the remaining FDNY companies. Bloombergs plan is nothing more than a disaster in the making.