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by the Fire Department have jumped since they were closed a year ago.
“We're here fighting, and we'll continue to fight,” said Phil DePaolo, one of the dozens of demonstrators who gathered Sunday outside the former home of Engine Company 204 in Brooklyn.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg closed the firehouses last May to help close the budget deficit, but opponents say the Fire Department’s own number bear out their prediction that the closings harm public safety.
“The city has put us at risk,” said Bronx Assemblyman Jeffrey Klein, whose office studied firefighter response times. “The city has increased response times, and, I think, endangered our families.”
According to Klein’s report, over an eight month period beginning in June 2003, the Fire Department’s average citywide response time – the elapsed time between a 911 call and the arrival of the first emergency vehicle on the scene – was 13 seconds higher than the same period a year earlier. That includes an increase of 7 seconds for structural fires and 15 seconds for medical emergencies, according to the study.
“If you look at the impact to these six communities, it's even worse,” Klein said. “We've seen a 23 percent increase to structural fires, on average in these six communities, and a 30-second increase in medical emergency response times.”
Members of Ladder Company 102 in Bedford-Stuyvesant told NY1 that since their former firehouse neighbor, Engine 209, was shut down, they have experienced delays that could cost lives.
“In my neighborhood in Williamsburg,” said Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, “the response time has increased by 57 seconds. That's a minute, and anybody from the Fire Department with knowledge about fires will tell you that's enough to engulf a house in flames and kill people.”
Even though response times are up, the Fire Department said in a statement, “the closure of the six companies has had a minimal effect on citywide operations. Response times to medical emergencies in the City of New York are the best they have ever been.”
The department said the fire companies that assumed responsibility for the areas where firehouses were closed respond faster than the citywide average. The department also said bad weather or last summer's blackout could have had a small effect on response times.
Last year’s firehouse closings sparked protests around the city, especially at the so-called "People's Firehouse," Engine 212 in Greenpoint, where some demonstrators were arrested.
Now that the city's financial outlook is improving, the elected officials at Sunday’s protest said, the mayor should restore funding to reopen the firehouses.
“I'm saying to Mr. Mayor, ‘Hold your breath for a minute and see how you feel, while you wait for a fire engine to come and save you,’” said Assemblywoman Joan Millman of the Bronx.
But the mayor and Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta have said the firehouses will remain closed.
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