|
|
 |
 |
by DAVID LEPESKA and BETH HOLLAND
The president of the city firefighters' union Saturday assailed the Fire Department for using "old and unsafe" equipment, one day after a firefighter fractured his skull when he fell out of a 17-year-old ladder truck en route to a Manhattan blaze.
"How can it be that in a city with an annual budget of over $55 billion that the lives of firefighters and the citizens we are sworn to protect depends on apparatus built in the 1980s, when Ed Koch was mayor?" Stephen Cassidy, head of the 8,900-member Uniformed Firefighters Association, said in a statement.
The Fire Department quickly issued its own statement, defending its procurement procedures and truck repairs as "proactive."
"In fact, the FDNY has brought in both fire unions in an attempt to work together on this important task," the department statement said. "Steve Cassidy is disingenuous in his comments regarding this."
The department also seemed to pin blame on Seagrave Fire Apparatus LLC, the venerable Wisconsin firm from which it gets its vehicles, saying the company "has experienced recent problems in meeting its responsibilities both in supplying new vehicles and making warranty repairs."
Meanwhile, at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Firefighter Joseph Moore, 26, was in critical but stable condition and showing "responsiveness," a Fire Department spokesman said. It was unclear if he had regained consciousness.
Moore, of Belle Harbor, assigned to Ladder Company 13 on East 85th Street, fell out of what firefighters call the "back step" of the truck Friday night as it turned onto Lexington Avenue, en route to an Upper East Side blaze.
The "back step" of the 1988 ladder truck is among four seats located behind the front cab's passenger seat -- two facing the rear of the vehicle and two facing the front. Moore was sitting in one of the forward-facing seats.
The ladder company was using the older, spare rig because its regular truck is being repaired. When the truck turned onto Lexington shortly before 9 p.m., the rear passenger-side door swung open and Moore fell out, striking his head on the pavement, according to police.
The fire, at Bagel Bob's at 86th Street near York Avenue, was extinguished at 9:19 p.m. by firefighters from another company. No one was injured.
The accident remains under investigation. A department safety unit tested the door latch shortly afterward and found it to be in perfect working condition. The truck is supposed to be equipped with seat belts, a department spokesman said, but he was unsure if this truck had them.
The older truck is part of a reserve fleet used whenever the regularly used trucks need routine servicing. The FDNY spokesman would not say whether those were the circumstances of the vehicles in question.
Pledging the union will conduct its own investigation, Cassidy said union officials several months ago brought to the department's attention "a severe problem with the city's procurement process to replace aging fire trucks."
"This failure by the department was requiring older and, in some cases, unsafe rigs to be kept in service," he said, calling the city's procurement process "broken."
Since the "recent problems" with Seagrave, the Fire Department said it has been "aggressive and relentless" in pressuring Seagrave to improve or risk losing city business.
"Since then, there have been measurable improvements and the FDNY will keep the pressure up to make certain Seagrave meets all of its contractual obligations," the statement said.
Officials at Seagrave Fire Apparatus' headquarters in Clintonville, Wis., could not be reached for comment Saturday.
 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
