The Brooklyn apartment fire that killed an elderly woman Friday morning grew into an intense blaze because recent staffing cuts depleted the first wave of responding firefighters, a union chief charged.
UFA President Steve Cassidy placed the blame for the size of fire on "staff reductions mandated by the mayor."
The cuts meant that four less firefighters were available to man hose lines in the early minutes of the response - making it necessary for the FDNY to call in additional engine companies to serve as back-up, Cassidy said.
"Reduced staffing levels in engine companies threatens civilian and firefighter lives, while in the long run costing the city more than it saves," the union head said.
Nicholas, 70, died in a second-floor apartment when flames tore through a building in the Lenox Road Houses in Brownsville, police and FDNY officials said.
Officials confirmed Friday afternoon that four of the first five engine companies that arrived at the scene had lost a firefighter to staffing cuts at the beginning of the month.
...
The cuts - currently the subject of a legal appeal by the fire unions - removed a firefighter from 60 of the city's 194 engine companies.
Those companies were left with a total of four firefighters and an officer - the same number as the city's other 134 engine companies.
About 130 Firefighters responded to three-alarm blaze following a 911 call at 6 a.m.
The fire's intensity forced tenants to flee to the roof of the four-story building. Others residents had to be rescued from the fire escape, witnesses said.
Two women were hospitalized for treatment of smoke inhalation, and seven firefighters were injured - one who nearly fell through a crumbling floor.
Fire Marshals believe a space-heater may have caused the blaze, FDNY sources said.
One firefighter was inside the building when the floor below him began to give way, Gribbon said.
One of the firefighter's legs plunged into the hole, leaving him on the verge of falling through the splitting floor. A dreaded "mayday" call was placed, but the trapped firefighter's comrades pulled him to safety before he fell, Gribbon said.
All seven of the firefighters who were hurt suffered minor injuries, officials said. The two women who suffered smoke inhalation were in stable condition at Brookdale Hospital, police said. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
The engine company cuts went into effect when a staffing agreement between the FDNY and the fire unions expired on Feb. 1.
The unions have filed a petition with the city's Office of Labor Relations, opposing the FDNY's decision not to renegotiate the agreement. A decision is expected soon, possibly as early as next week.
The cuts will save the city about $30 million in annual overtime that previously went toward paying for the extra firefighters. The FDNY, forced by City Hall to reduce spending, viewed the cuts as less damaging to essential services than other options that were on the chopping block, Gribbon, FDNY spokesman said.
One dead person, $30 million in savings.
A good trade, right Moneybags?
We MUST make sure that your bankster and hedge fund buddies don't have to pay higher taxes, so we cut, cut, cut...
So what if people died during the Bloomberg Blizzard Disaster of 2010 and now during this horrific fire?
Moneybags probably figures this is one less senior citizen who will need the services he plans to cut anyway.
A win-win for the Mayor of Money.
I have found it troubling for months that there is such strong public sentiment in favor of cutting back essential services - fire, sanitation, transit, education, and safety. Most troubling is the rote rhetorical bullshit coming from people who chose to work in the private sector, then suffered when the private sector started to go broke - these are the same people who complain that municipal (read: unionized) workers are paid too much and have too many benefits. A long-time friend who lives in White Plains believes wholeheartedly that it was correct to force cops, firefighters, and teachers in that own to accept cuts in pay - after all, everyone else is suffering, why should they be the only ones who don't? I responded by saying that I hope if her house ever catches fire, or if she is the victim of a crime, or if the tax base collapses because the public school in her neighborhood loses all of its veteran teachers, that there is still a firehouse in her neighborhood, a precinct nearby the crime scene, and some large private school to educate the children of her neighbors lest they move away and take their tax dollars with them. Instead of getting angry at the framers of the current economic collapse, it is much easier to blame the one aspect of the public infrastructure that is more or less, and should remain stable. Over 100 years of labor law is being lost because the public's anger is misdirected. I hope that those who cry out for cuts in municipal labor are never in the position of being the one whose home is lost to a fire because the nearby firehouse was closed due to the budget cuts for which they cried out so vehemently. Firefighters, cops - it's time for you to stand with the teachers.
ReplyDeleteLook stop the sarcasm, it is a few fire fighters or one less chef at Gracie Mansion. Where is your priority?
ReplyDeletePerhaps we should eliminate the firehouse closest to Mikey's home, and downsize the local precinct there, too. Of course, the public schools where he lives are most likely populated by his wealthy neighbors with only a minimum of influx from the surrounding ghettos, thank goodness for whitey mikey.
ReplyDeleteBut why don't these people blame the bankers and Wall Street (the ones who really caused the problem)?
ReplyDelete@1:45pm. Indeed. Why don't they?
ReplyDeleteContinuing Anon 1:45pm: I believe that most people, deep down, don't want to admit that there is something very very wrong with our "profit at all costs" capitalism. The public sector is supposed to be protected from busts and in return, reap very little else when the economy is golden. Notice that no one in private sector complains about unions when the private sector is doing well. But when the bankers and Wall Streeters rob us blind, people in private industry begin to lose their jobs, and they still have to get to work. Transit costs go up, so the unemployed have to pay more to ride. Teachers, firefighters, and cops, receive incremental increases that were negotiated by collective bargaining - the tradeoff has always been that we accept modest salaries and hard, hard work in return for job stability, some modicum of upward mobility (insofar as climbing to the top of the lower-middle class is upward mobility), good health care, and pension benefits. Public sector employees, for the most part, recognize that they serve the public in anticipation that, after retirement, the public will serve them. When everyone is hurting because of the irresponsibility, basically, of a few rich people, it is so much easier to scapegoat the regular Joes and Janes of the world - they point to the municipal workers and say, why don't THEY take a pay cut? It's just easier. Wrong, but easier.
ReplyDelete"One dead person, $30 million in savings."
ReplyDeleteThe inhumanity of it all makes me wonder if this deceased woman was a retired teacher. Then in Mikey's mind, it justifies cutting the services in her neighborhood, as she was raking in too many entitlements as it were.
Mikey is disgusting. I can think of a few more descriptive words but I'll leave that to the other writers.