|
|
 |
 |
The Fire Department is restoring five-man crews on about a quarter of the fire engines in the city, Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta announced Tuesday.
Effective Wednesday, 49 of the city’s 197 engine companies will be staffed with an additional firefighter, bringing the total number of trucks with five-man crews to 60. The rest are staffed with four firefighters each.
In December, the FDNY cut the fifth man from those 49 engine companies, exercising a 1996 contract provision that allows for a reduction in staffing when the percentage of firefighters on sick leave exceeds 7.5 percent. Last year sick leave jumped to more than 700, well over the threshold.
But last month, the department says sick leave dropped to about 500.
The reversal comes after three fires in the city claimed six lives in the past two weeks, three of them firefighters.
However, Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the increase is not in response to the firefighters’ deaths.
“When the weather gets bad we always have beefed up the number of men and women on the engines and trucks,” said Bloomberg. “In fact, response time in both of these fires appears to be way below average. We got there very quickly in both cases; they were just tragedies that did not seem to depend on either of those incidents.”
The Fire Department argues the staff reductions don't have much impact on safety, but the firefighters union says the difference is tremendous.
"The real issue is what happened when they took that man away in December and January? There were several fatal fires, civilians were killed where the first engine company on the scene previously had been staffed properly with five was slashed to four. Everyone admits it takes longer to get water on the fire which is the most critical life-saving thing that we do," said United Firefighters Association president Stephen Cassidy.
The union also points out that nothing in the contract forces the city to reduce staffing based on sick leave numbers and perhaps Bloomberg will be reluctant to cut the number of firefighters as Election Day draws closer, regardless of what happens with the sick numbers.
 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
