FDNY Scorched By Slow Response Time

    March 22, 2004
    Politicians and community activists gathered outside a shuttered Brooklyn firehouse yesterday - and used the FDNY's own numbers to argue for the reopening of six firehouses that were closed last May.
    Politicians and community activists gathered outside a shuttered Brooklyn firehouse yesterday - and used the FDNY's own numbers to argue for the reopening of six firehouses that were closed last May. The figures, released earlier this month, show response times increased in all of the six neighborhoods that had been served by the units.

    The increases were under a minute, but "seconds do matter. Speed is of the essence," said Assemblyman Jeff Klein, a Bronx Democrat.

    "The results of closing these firehouses is not only detrimental by putting these six communities in danger, but it's a bad symbol that the city of New York can no longer respond effectively."

    Since the closing last May of Engine Co. 204 in Cobble Hill, the site of the protest, there has been a 39-second increase in overall response times. For medical emergencies, the response time was up by 51 seconds.

    The figures cover June through January.

    After Engine Co. 212 closed in Greenpoint, there's been a 46-second increase in response time to all emergencies in the area.

    It's taking firefighters 56 seconds longer to reach building fires.

    "A lot of people are going to lose their lives before they say they found the money, because [the city] certainly won't say they made a mistake," said Lt. Stephen Carbone, vice president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association.

    "We have these statistics. They're real. And they know they have a problem. We talk about seconds, but in this business seconds count."

    FDNY spokesman David Billig later said that while minor increases had been predicted all along, "four out of the six areas where engine companies were closed still have response times below the citywide average."

    The citywide average response time for all emergencies from June 2003 to January 2004 was 4 minutes and 56 seconds.

    Areas once served by Engine Co. 212, Engine Co. 278 in Sunset Park, Engine Co. 209 in Bed-Stuy and Engine Co. 36 in Harlem are still under the citywide average, Billig said.

    "What that means is that those areas, even without those engine companies responding, still have a better response time than other areas in the city," he said.

    "The closure of these six companies have had a minimal effect on citywide operations."

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