FDNY's too slow, say pols
 
By NANCY DILLON  DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
 
FDNY response times have spiked an alarming amount since the city closed six fire companies last May, according to a report released yesterday by three state lawmakers.
It took firefighters nearly a minute longer to respond to calls in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, according to the report. In Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, the Fire Department's response times for medical emergencies jumped by an average 51 seconds, the study said.

"Over the last six months, we've seen a 23% increase [citywide] in fire deaths, and I don't think that's any coincidence," Assemblyman Jeffrey Klein (D-Bronx) said outside Engine 204 in Cobble Hill as he demanded the companies be reopened.

"Seconds do matter."

Harlem; Astoria, Queens, and Cobble Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Greenpoint and Sunset Park, Brooklyn - the six neighborhoods that lost engines - saw response times jump an average of 27 seconds, the report said.

When the companies were closed to save $6 million a year, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta predicted the average response time across the city would rise by just a second.

The study, which gauged response times for fire and medical calls from June to January, put the average FDNY response at 4 minutes, 56 seconds. That was up 13 seconds from the corresponding period in recent years.

FDNY officials maintained the closings weren't causing response times to rise.

"The closure of the six companies has had a minimal effect on citywide operations," said FDNY spokesman David Billig. "Four of the six areas where engine companies closed have response times that are still below the citywide average."

The main reason for the increases, according to FDNY sources, was last year's blackout. They added that emergency calls in the six affected areas amount to less than 2% of total FDNY call volume.

That was little consolation to Mary Cubeta, 85, who suffered a fractured rib after being hit by a car Aug. 26 near Engine 204.

"I was lying on the street for 20 minutes before an ambulance came," she said yesterday. "If the firemen had been there, they would have helped me in a jiffy."

Klein and Assemblywomen Joan Millman (D-Brooklyn) and Margaret Markey (D-Queens) vowed to make the fire companies a "bargaining chip" in budget negotiations.

"We're not voting for any extra money [for the city] until we get a guarantee," Markey said.

With Greg Gittrich     Originally published on March 22, 2004
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Daily News 3 24 04
Brooklyn: Re the article "FDNY's too slow, say pols" (March 22): Check the response times in Sunset Park again. What the department has failed to let residents know is that there was an engine company temporarily assigned to Engine 278's quarters. It is gone now, as is the battalion chief. The firehouse is empty. What will happen to response times in Sunset Park now?


Moira Horan
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Firefighters' response time a hot topic

BY JOSHUA ROBIN
STAFF WRITER     March 22, 2004

Saying firefighters' response times have become dangerously slow since Mayor Michael Bloomberg disbanded six fire companies last year, a state legislator from the Bronx yesterday threatened to withhold city aid if the units aren't reopened.

"We hope we won't have to use the power of the purse and the mayor will reopen them," Assemb. Jeffrey Klein (D-Bronx) said at a news conference outside one of the closed houses, Engine Company 204 in Cobble Hill.

It was unclear whether Klein could make good on his threat to withhold state aid to the city, which last year totaled close to $2 billion. He said he hadn't mentioned it to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan).

The threat came as Klein released Fire Department figures he obtained indicating citywide response time has increased by an average of 13 seconds since the May closures.

Klein said Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta had estimated that response time would increase overall by only one second.

The increase in response time is even longer, 27 seconds, in the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens communities once served by the companies, Klein said.

Bloomberg approved the closures last year to save the city about $8 million annually.

Klein's response time figures nevertheless show that in four of the six affected communities, firefighters are still responding to emergencies faster than the city average. The exceptions were Cobble Hill and Long Island City.

"That means that even without those engine companies there, the response times are even better than other areas of the city," said Dave Billig, a Fire Department spokesman. "The closure of the six companies have minimal effect on citywide operations."

A fire official who declined to be identified said the increased citywide response times reflected increased activity during last summer's blackout and difficulty maneuvering rigs during recent snowstorms.

Klein could not say for certain that the increased response times had resulted in more fatalities, but he said a study found 23 percent more fire-related deaths during the past six months than in the same time period a year earlier.

"I don't think that's any coincidence," he said.

Billig declined to comment on that claim.

Officials and activists said they would revive the fight to reopen the houses after the once boisterous struggle kept a low boil for months.
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ASSEMBLYMAN KLEIN REVEALS DANGEROUS INCREASE IN FDNY RESPONSE TIMES

Citywide response time increases by 13 seconds

Assemblyman Jeff Klein (D-Bronx) released to the public statistical data showing huge jumps in Fire Department response times since the Mayor and Fire Commissioner closed six fire companies in May of 2003.

Assemblyman Klein has been investigating the firehouse closings as Chair of the Assembly’s Committee on Oversight, Analysis and Investigation, along with Assemblyman Joe Lentol (D-Brooklyn), Chair of the Assembly Codes Committee, and Assemblyman Scott Stringer (D-Manhattan), Chair of the Assembly’s Committee on Cities.

The Assembly Committees have received from FDNY response time data in response to the Committees’ January 15, 2004 request for the data. The data compares actual, real-world response times before and after the closings.

Some of the more striking increases in response times include:

• · The citywide average for all incidents increased by 13 seconds—12 seconds higher than forecast by Commissioner Scoppetta in May 2003.
• · The increase in the six neighborhoods for structural fires averaged 23 seconds. The highest increase was in Engine Company 212’s area—56 seconds.
• · The increase in the six neighborhoods for medical emergencies averaged 30 seconds. The highest increase was in Engine company 204’s area—51 seconds.
• · The increase in the six neighborhoods for all incidents was 27 seconds. The highest increase was in Engine Company 212’s area—46 seconds.

On May 25, 2003, Mayor Bloomberg and Fire Commissioner Scoppetta closed fire companies in Harlem (No.36), Cobble Hill (No.204), Bedford-Stuyvesant (No.209), Greenpoint (No. 212), Astoria/Long Island City (No. 261), and Sunset Park (No. 278) due to the City’s “dire fiscal crisis.”

On May 5, 2003, Fire Commissioner Scoppetta told the City Council that the cuts’ effects would be negligible and that “average response times...will rise…overall in the city by one second” (Testimony before City Council, 5/5/03, at p. 5).

The Commissioner’s 2003 presentations in advocating for the cuts did not always make clear when the Fire Department’s statistics for the affected neighborhoods were “real” numbers or “computerized” numbers. Assemblyman Klein explained, “One of our first orders of business has been to straighten out what the real response times were for these neighborhoods before the closings, and what the response times have been since the closings. That clear real-world data is what we have for the first time from the Fire Department in these charts.”

“Now that we have this data, it’s quite clear that Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Scoppetta were wrong. Whether it is one second or fifty seconds, it is never a good time to close fire houses. It is not worth the savings to endanger New Yorkers' lives" said Assemblyman Scott Stringer, Chairman of the Assembly’s Committee on Cities.

“The ultimate question is what these response times mean in terms of life, safety and property. Last year the number of people killed by fire increased 23 percent over 1992--from 97 to 119.” Klein said. “Only when we have established the real facts about response time increases, can we intelligently address that question. What does an increase of one second, ten seconds, or thirty-three seconds really mean?”

The Assembly Committees conducted a hearing on the firehouse closings on March 4. At the hearing, expert witnesses testified that seconds can mean the difference between life and death in fires and medical emergencies. The Commissioner was invited to the hearing, but declined to appear. The Committees are in the process of arranging to hear from Commissioner Scoppetta.

“The primary responsibility of government is life and safety—such as protection from death by fire,” said Klein. “We need to know what the real-world effects of these cuts have been, and we are going to find out.”                                                                                       to top

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read about Williamsburg- a “shrinking neighborhood” - according to the Blue Ribbon Panel                                            (to top)