Past Year Saw Fewest Fire Deaths In A Century, Mayor And FDNY Commissioner Announce
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New York's Bravest are getting the job done.
On Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro announced that in 2016, the city saw the fewest fire deaths in a calendar year since 1916, with 48.
As 1010 WINS' Al Jones reported, when he was firefighter Nigro in 1970, 310 New Yorkers died in fires.
"While we were losing almost one person every day here in New York, now we're losing fewer than one person every week, and that's a tremendous accomplishment," he said.
The decline has been attributed to 9 percent fewer serious fires, and shaving response times by an average of five seconds.
"We're getting to fires faster, critical patients faster, providing the treatment they need, all of these improvements are helping to save lives," he said.
Electrical fires, smoking, and cooking were the leading causes of fire deaths in 2016.
