Exclusive: CBS 2 Obtains Partial List Of FDNY Company Closures

As Many As 20 On The Block, Including Responder To Wall Street

April 6, 2011 11:46 PM

credit: Bloomberg (Getty Images); FDNY (AP)

Reporting Marcia Kramer

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Local, News, NY News, Politics, Seen On CBS 2HD, Watch + Listen

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NEW YORK (CBS 2) — The secret is out.

CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer has learned exclusively some of the fire houses on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s chopping block. Some say shutting them down could put your safety at risk.

LISTEN: 1010 WINS’ John Montone with the details

Twenty fire companies are on death row including, sources said, Engine 271 in Bushwick. And unless there’s a last-minute reprieve communities all across the city could be in danger.

“It’s very serious. Mayor Bloomberg is asking the Fire Department to roll the dice on public safety. If you close one fire company, let alone 20, even one fire company will impact the safety of New Yorkers,” said Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, D-Queens.

“When response time goes up you’re talking about loss of property and loss of life,” added Councilman James Vacca.

Vacca is all fired up about the expectation that Ladder 53 on City Island — in his district — is on the closure list.

“We know our budget is bad but no one can justify jeopardizing life and limb and public safety,” Vacca said.

Sources told Kramer that others expected to be on death row are Engine 161 on Staten Island and Engine 4 at the South Street Seaport.

When Engine 4 left the firehouse on a call Wednesday, firefighters wondered whether it would be among their last in the dense Wall Street area near ground zero.

Kramer asked fire union official Edward Boles to explain, for example, what closing Engine 4 would mean for fire safety.

“Engine 4 is the first engine to respond if there was any tragedy at Wall Street,” Boles said. “Wall Street is the economic capital of the world. They’re also a mass de-con unit, so if there was a major terrorist attack they would be the first ones to help out.”

People who live and work in the area are terrified.

“It’s such a compact neighborhood that you need someone here to respond quickly to any type of fire because it would spread like wildfire,” said Tom Rooney, who works in the area.

“Its scary, it’s absolutely scary. I don’t know what else to say,” Lower Manhattan resident Toni Sosinsky said.

“A lot of new apartments around here. All of these office buildings have become apartments, so I don’t think you should close it down. When you look at the density of the amount of people who are moving down to the Financial District, now they need it,” added Michael Springer, who also works in the area.

And Boles has a message for Mayor Bloomberg:

“Please, for the sake of the citizens of New York City and for their safety, don’t put dollars before lives,” Boles said.

The FDNY is already operating with nearly 600 fewer firefighters. City officials said it doesn’t expect to release the full list of the doomed 20 until sometime next month.

Agree with the fire company cuts? Think the mayor is putting lives at risk? Please offer your thoughts in the comments section below.

Exclusive: CBS 2 Obtains Partial List Of FDNY Company Closures

Ed Goodwin

Can’t “defund” the do-nothings, the 3rd & 4th generation loafers, the ilegals, etal and WHY they would RIOT. Keep it up NYC & AMERICA the have nothings do nothings and want ‘everythings’ WILL (and this will brand me as extreme) out breed out vote
and ‘out get’ all of US……and WE WILL GO DOWN. There is no other option, thanks to the professional vote getters. May God have mercy on US all…………..oh that’s right we got rid of HIM.
sally bots

id love to know what u do for a living… if the day ever came that you need the firedepartment, how long do you want to wait? do you know the difference in responce times from vol depts to paid depts ? im willing to bet no you dont .. the avg nyc responce time for a fire truck to arrive is under 4 mins….the average responce time for volunteers is over 13..and all vol dept are situated in small towns with little populations nyc fire comps all almost respond at bare minimum to over 2000 calls a yr and many as high as 5000. most vol comps go btwn 500-1000 calls a yr at most… the nyc fire dept is very aggressive on interior attacks… vol dept very often put the fire out from the outside,by that time your house is completly burned down… get a clue b4 you bash the greatest biggest and busiest fire department in the world
tom

Kathy,You say your father was a fireman?[been called firefighters for over 30 years] Probably not in an urban area. Over 350+ socalled” members of the good old boys club”, gave their lives for the people of this city. Perhaps you have forgotten or maybe you weren’t born yet. These men are at the Pathmark buying lunch or dinner for the entire shift. They all carry personal radios. When an incident is transmitted, they immediately leave and respond to the alarm. Sounds like one of them dumped you for someone with a brain.

Kathy

Dear tom
My dad was a proud member of the FDNY for 25 years. My point was that were I live in SINY there is no need for 3 fire houses and no need for 30 firefighters to go shop at path mark. So Burn in helll jerk o f f
Kathy

sally botz

firefighters may have a lot of free time occasionally at work while they are in between calls but they are our first line of defense..they are more helpful then the cops…and i dont care if they go to only 1 fire a year, its something not every1 is cut out for…how about the countless hrs they spend away from families nights holidays weekends? i reallly belive u have to be an arragnant liberal to say close the fd and make it a volunteer dept..
Ramon Vargas

Liberals, you never hear them cutting 20k welfare recipients do you? The bureaucracy is never cut off!
Tom McDonald

This could be a Gaddafi moment for Bloomberg. Liberals always cut essential services first. It’s so cliche. It’s time to put an end to tactics like Bloomberg’s and overthrow the tyrant.
Thomas A Kelly

collective bargaining?….this is the effect when it is the government (liberals) and the unions against the taxpayer. The union gets more for less and in return vote for the libs….net effect: services have to be cut because of runaway benefits when money gets tight.
WOLF

GET RID OF ALL THE PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY ILLEGALLY AND THERE WILL BE ENOUGH MONEY FOR ALL OF US CITIZENS WHO WORK HARD TO PAY TAXES THAT SUPPORT EVERYONE EXCEPT US
MollyGirl

Close them down! Real firefighters volunteer and work a Real job to support there family’s.

Chris

Well I don’t agree completely about the real fire fighters. Those who work full time fire fighters are no different then those who do it voluntarily. So cities decided to go full time while others chose not to.

Yes it is cheaper to run a volunteer department and pay for on call response.

But to demean those who do it full time is uncalled for.
whatupdunn

Also, it’s “their”, not “there” you rube.
whatupdunn

What do you do for a living that is more of a “real job” than running into burning buildings to save people?
ts

Hey MollyGirl,
Obviously, you know zip about the work of the FDNY to make such an idiotic comment. Also, it’s “their”, not “there”, and it’s “famiilies”, not “family’s”. A high school diploma might have helped.
Count Yob

Volunteer firefighters may be acceptable in some suburban communities but more highly built-up cities require skilled professional firefighters. I do think, though, that the uniformed services get too many sweetheart deals for work rules, pensions and disability. If NYPD and FDNY contracts were reformed to eliminate these abuses then the city wouldn’t have to make so many cuts.
Richard Fox

Molly, You are an idiot!

bebopdead

The Bloomberg Administration didn’t see this coming?
Hello? Is someone clueless in NYC?

Typical. Liberals are always short of cash and start screaming cuts to Firefighters and Police to raise extra cash. Predictable.

It would be a totally different spin if it was a conservative in office.
Ted

Fear mongering, nothing more. Close 20 frat houses, no loss
Gloria Guerriera

I don’t understand this, already 600 hundred firefighters short. Companies closing. Some nut case judge who is imposing his will on the FD not being able to hire because of some supposed reasoning about the entrance exam not being fair to minorities. All we read about is teachers being laid off and senior citizen center closings. Well if he goes through with the firehouse closings, we might not need those teachers or centers. We will probably lose those people who need those services in fires or other emergencies because of lack of firefighters .Nice way to go Mayor. This Mayor has it in for theFDNY. I truely believe it was his faullt that thosa 2 firefighters were lost at the Deutche Bank fire. Those 2 people on trail now are just fall guys for the Mayor taking care of his cronies.
Joe Doakes

The ultimate cost of liberalism is public safety. This is nuts.
Steven

Hey, we in NYC need the money to support welfare deadbeats, which are multiplying like rabbits constantly. So don’t cry about the firehouses closing, your money is instead helping keep people at home to take care of their seven fatherless children and feed and clothe them and provide shelter. .

RufusVonDufus

Tawana had 9 kids all name LatWanda. When the Rev asked her one day how she got a certain one to come when she wanted her she replied that she called her by her last name!
justjack

don’t forget bloombergs pets, the 25-50,000 illegals in NYC that get 1000 check monthly by putting an x next to their request, yes it happens and will continue while we elect jew boy victims like mike as mayor

Kathy

I say let close the 2 out of the 3 in my neighborhood. At any givin time there are 5 fire trucks and 20 firemen shopping at the Pathmark by my house. My dad was a fireman but these new guys are just jerks who throw on there ugly dress uniform and go down to the local pub to get drunk and harass the young ladies.
Like all good old boys clubs this one needs to be stripped down from top to bottem!!!!!

Gloria Guerriera

Hey, numbnuts! If you think you could handle the job like you dad did and better than the guys doing it now, why don’t you take the job. Last I heard fire still burns as hot now as it did in your dad’s day and the job is just as dangerous today. And I was on the job before your dad probably was.
Matt

If you plan to deamonize the fire department, you should perhaps make an attempt to utilize proper grammar while doing so. For example: ” …jerks that throw on there ugly dress uniforms and…”
The word there is used to describe a location, such as “look over there at Kathy. She’s a moron.” The word you were looking for is the conjunction of they and are, forming “they’re.”So used correctly: “look at those firemen. They’re snappy dressers in dress uniform.” Not a bad English lesson from a dumb fireman from Florida, was it Kathy?

BigRed

You idiot. The proper word to use in the sentence she wrote is THEIR.
Yes, it was a bad English lesson from a dumb fireman.

“jerks that throw on THEIR ugly dress uniforms……..”

THIS lesson brought to you by a not so dumb firefighter of 33 years from Ohio.
BigRed

Oh,and by the way, the correct spelling of “deamonize” (as you wrote it) is DEMONIZE.

Idiot…….

Jimbob

I guess they aren’t allowed to eat ? A basic necessity in life no ? Especially if you are engaged in a physical job. Terrible argument and learn how to spell….. “bottom”…..Or maybe you didn’t eat today.

joey shamus

it shoujld be done correctly…but how about the days or let alone weeks and months that go by when some of these units do absolutely nothing?
Nathan Perlman

This pos Bloomberg lives in BERMUDA.
Felix

This is great.. Let everyone see how the city will close the FD and leave all the other non essential departments open. like free housing department , food for the non workers department, find the smoking violators department, etc
crackHeadsIN_NY

Why doesn’t this moron cut welfare and giveaways; and open up commerce. WHAT A FRAUD.

NEXT JOB FOR FRAUDBERG = PRISON = 250 Years. So we never see his dumb ass again.

NEW YORK get off the crack.
Craig Michaels

If you don’t like it, move out.

phil221

My guess is you have never lived in NYC otherwise you would think differently.

CHARLIE

HAVE WALL STREET FINANCE THEIR OWN FIRE COMPANY,THEY CAN AFFORD IT.
pyramos

But they can pay for illegal’s education.
Robert Stanton

How do you sleep at night Mr. Billionaire you will have blood on your hands from fatalities from these closures !

bdc

The same way that you go to sleep with the blood of people because you won’t pay for doubling the fire department size.
Gloria Guerriera

He’s already got the blood of the 2 firefighters killed at the Deutche Bank fire on his hands.

uihgyugyu

Giulani was the mayor then.

Christopher Lehman

“People who live and work in the area are terrified.”

No there NOT!

Rolando

No they’re not.”

heatherfeather

Let Wall Street burn. Bunch of thieves.

phil221

Heatherfeather take the feathers out of your brain and know people will die it is not about just wall street people actually live in that part of Manhattan.

Jimbob

Relax Phil. Heatherfeather probably just moved to Williamsburg from Wisconsin and claims she’s “from” Brooklyn. She has to get to know the city better.

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Exclusive: CBS 2 Obtains Partial List Of FDNY Company Closures

As Many As 20 On The Block, Including Responder To Wall Street

April 6, 2011 11:46 PM

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