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The Fire Department said Friday that it would increase protection on Roosevelt Island on weekends until the Republican National Convention is over.
It took the action after a mechanical problem Thursday evening on the bridge to Queens left the Fire Department without vehicular access to the island for two hours.
For security reasons, the U.S. Coast Guard has been diverting pleasure boats off the main West Channel of the East River to the East Channel, which the bridge spans, between the island and Queens.
The only vehicular route on or off the island is the 50-year-old bridge, and the span is now opened more often to allow large pleasure boats to pass, the department said.
The department said that, starting Friday night, it would staff a full-time engine company on Roosevelt Island on weekends - when pleasure-boat traffic is heaviest - until it is notified by the Coast Guard that the main channel of the river has re-opened to pleasure craft.
A securing pin on the bridge failed to lock in place when the bridge was closing after a boat passed Thursday evening and the bridge was locked open between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., the Department of Transportation said.
The Fire Department sent 25 firefighters and a battalion chief to the island via the F subway line, leaving their engines and ladders parked on the street in Queens with two firefighters to watch them.
However, there was only a spare water-pumping fire engine on the island for all 25 firefighters and no ladder truck for high-rise residential buildings. After the bridge was fixed, the firefighters left.
Paul Rose, a spokesman for City Council Speaker Gifford Miller (D-Manhattan), who represents the district, said Friday that Miller "has always worked closely with the Fire Department to make sure that the island has emergency personnel available at all times."
Rose said bringing the firefighters on the island temporarily Thursday evening "was an example of the situation working correctly."
"Fire safety on Roosevelt Island is a top priority for the speaker and always will be," Rose said.
But the Uniformed Firefighters Association asked how the island, with about 10,000 residents, could be left without full-time protection.
"What are they going to do with 25 firefighters and one engine?" asked Stephen Humenesky, Queens trustee of the union. "What are they going to do at a real fire?"
City Island in the Bronx has fewer residents and smaller buildings, yet it has a two full-time units on the island, he said, and they are replaced when taken out of service for training or other reasons.
Fire Department spokesman Dave Billig said it takes a fire unit an average of four minutes to respond to Roosevelt Island. while the second nearest unit to City Island would take 11.
Along with the addition of the full-time engine company on weekends, a spare ladder unit was to be put on the island and would be staffed by firefighters coming by subway from Queens if the bridge malfunctioned again, the department said.
The bridge has been opened more frequently of late, Transportation Department spokesman Tom Coccola said, although he could not provide statistics on usage.
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