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by PATRICK GALLAHUE
New York's Bravest are blazing their way to a new record number of emergency runs — and will likely break a mark that has stood for almost 30 years.
An official "run" can be anything from a high-rise fire to aiding a heart attack victim — and firefighters are on pace to log a whopping 470,000 of them by the end of the year, torching the previous record of 459,567 set in 1977.
That record dates to the so-called "war years" of the 1970s, when The Bronx had a record number of malicious fires.
If the current pace holds, the number will also eclipse 2004, now the second-highest year, when firefighters went on 456,696 runs.
"These are historically high numbers. Where we are is way above where we were last year," said Uniformed Fire Officers Association leader Peter Gorman.
In contrast to the high number of emergency runs, Gorman said, malicious false alarms have fallen dramatically, from the all-time peak of 285,290 in 1978 — more than half the FDNY's runs — to an all-time low of 37,332 in 2004.
He said that since 1977, emergencies such as car accidents, carbon monoxide detection, gas leaks and oil spills, to name a few non-fire calls, have more than tripled.
"The need for FDNY resources are at an all time high," Gorman said.
But Fire Department officials say their resources are not stretched. "The department is more than capable of handling the increase in incidents, and we have handled them," said FDNY spokesman Frank Gribbon.
Response times haven't changed — but they did spike last October after a firetruck crash that killed a civilian prompted firefighters to take more care heading to incident scenes, Gribbon said.
Union officials highlighted the increase in fire calls amid a contract battle with the Bloomberg administration.
Rank-and-file firefighters "definitely feel the increase," said Uniformed Firefighters Association official Jim Slevin.
Firefighters have been without a contract for three years and they agreed this week to let a state arbitrator step in to settle the impasse.
The department has 11,500 firefighters and 197 firehouses citywide.
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DEADLY INFERNO
By JOHN DOYLE and KATE MURRAY
A fast-racing predawn fire swept through a six-story Upper West Side apartment building early yesterday, killing a man and injuring more than a dozen other people, three of them critically.
The blaze began at 964 Amsterdam Ave., near 107th Street, at about 3 a.m. and quickly destroyed the staircase — forcing panicked residents to flee down their fire escapes.
FDNY sources said the fire apparently started in a huge pile of trash just behind the ground-floor stairwell. It was still unclear last night how it ignited, but fire marshals said their initial determination was that it was not deliberately set.
"The fire traveled right up the interior staircase to the sixth floor and the roof," Chief of Operations Sal Cassano said. "It spread right up the interior."
Adding to the problem, he said, was the fact that "people had stored things [newspapers] in their apartments."
"That always makes it more difficult," he said.
One tenant, George Santiago, 32, desperately climbed up the back fire escape to save his disabled mom, who needs oxygen 24 hours a day.
"I tried to get in the front to save my mother, but the smoke was too thick," he said. "I went into the back yard and climbed up the fire escape. My mother was on her knees. I pulled her out the window — and also got the lady next door out."
Firefighters, meanwhile, helped Carrie Reynosa, 21, and her mother escape.
"One of my neighbors was burned up," Reynosa said. "I couldn't recognize the lady because her face was so burned."
FDNY sources said the dead man, thought to be in his 50s, had lived on the top floor. His name was withheld pending family notification.
Three of his neighbors were listed in critical condition last night at St. Luke's and Columbia-Presbyterian hospitals, and five others reported suffering minor injuries, as did eight firefighters.
Hours later, a fire marshal investigating the cause of the fire was taken to St. Luke's with a neck injury suffered when he fell down a hole in the seared staircase.
Until last week, the building had been owned by the notorious slumlord Baruch Singer. But it was part of a parcel of Upper West Side and Harlem properties purchased by the Pinnacle Group and the Praedium Fund in a joint venture.
Singer declined comment yesterday, as did a spokeswoman for the Praedium Fund.
Additional reporting by Murray Weiss
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PENN STA. BLAZE STIRS RIDE CHAOS
By TOM LIDDY
A minor fire at Penn Station brought a major hassle to thousands of commuters and long-distance travelers last night.
The fire broke out about 7:37 p.m. in a storage room at track level and spewed smoke through much of the Amtrak-owned station.
Amtrak and NJ Transit passengers were delayed by the smoky blaze — but the Long Island Rail Road kept to its schedule.
It took 126 firefighters to put out the fire, which caused no serious injuries but shut the station's Amtrak and NJ Transit areas for two hours.
"I'm tired and I want to go home," said Elizabeth, N.J., resident Mable Peralta, 27 — who was unhappy at the idea of calling a taxi to take her there. "The fact that I have to spend 50 bucks to get home is really killing me."
"A track fire, and everything is shut down?" said an incredulous Vinnie Ortman, another New Jersey commuter.
"We don't have any information, and we're standing here like fools," said Ortman, a stockbroker. "They never tell you what's going on."
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