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A year after the city closed six firehouses, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta continues to maintain the decision to shut them was not political.
On Friday, Scoppetta testified before a State Assembly panel looking into the impact of the closings on the neighboring communities and on response times in the affected areas. The fire commissioner told lawmakers he wouldn't reopen the closed houses, even if he had the money.
“If somebody gave us $8 million tomorrow, I can tell you a lot of things I would spend it on: advanced technology; improving our operations center; doing counter-terrorism training,” said Scoppetta. “We have tremendous demands put on us post-9/11, so I would immediately spend that money on that.”
However, the Assembly argues that response times have gone up in the areas affected by the closings, and says the Fire Department once again needs to look at the issue of reopening them.
“Every time we have a hearing we find new information that leads us to believe that it's in the public interest to open up the firehouses, and they can't get away from that,” said Manhattan Assemblyman Scott Stringer.
Scoppetta maintains that the closings have had a minimum impact on response times in the six neighborhoods, and says in four of the areas, response time is actually lower than the city average.
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