New York, NY – New York City’s firefighting unions are steaming over a proposal to close 20 fire companies as a budget-cutting measure.
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Members of unions representing firefighters and fire officers marched across the Brooklyn Bridge on Friday. After that, thousands of firefighters and their supporters rallied near City Hall.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has defended the proposal, noting that response times and fire deaths are at a new low. He says sacrifices have to be made somewhere.
The city has about a month to finalize its budget.
Our businessman Mayor is so wrong on this issue that every NYC resident should rise up in protest and support Steve Cassidy and his people. Bloomberg has alfready forced FDNY to cut some engine companies staffing from five to four. The closing of 20 companies is nothing short of a disaster in the making. Recently there was a fire in the Coney island area where Ladder 161 serves. The brave firemen from Ladder 161 were responsible for saving a mans life. Ladder 161 on West 8th Street is on the hit list of the 20 companies to be closed. Had there been no Ladder 161 G-D only knows what would have happened to this fellow. Response times will suffer greatly. Seconds can make the difference between life and death. How do you even begin to justify closing a ladder company in an area where many of the buildings are high rises. The whole issue is insane. Support the UFA and FDNY, they are there for all of us 24/7/365.
As brought to the forefront in recent weeks by Dov Hikind who fought the wasteful and dangerous Islands placed on Fort Hamiltan PKWY which are now going to be removed. For this and many other wateful projects there is money, yet for essential services there never seems to be money. I have had personel dealings with the Housing Authority, Department of Education and other city agencies. These agancies intentionally are ordered to waste millions every year in order to be rebudgetted for the next physcal year. I was put on a project, for the then board of Education which as an outside consultant was paid $400.00 a day together with a team of 40 other consultants who were paid the same. After a few days it dawned upon all of us that this project had no useful application whatsoever. After working on the project for 2 months the worthless reports were then thrown in the garbage and the city paid a lot of money which was literally thrown into the garbage. I have had the same experience in other city agencies. Why not fix this fraud rather than lay off fire heros who actually serve a important function than those do nothings at the department of Education and other such agencies?
How can the Fire Department continue to staff at levels essentially the same as a quarter of a century ago? Population, demographics, and building codes have changed. We’re funding a Fire Department that is increasingly idle (not including the so called “EMS Responses” which are VASTLY over-rated). The city is looking at 1/3 of the fire volume it saw at its peak. The Fire Department needs to adapt.