FDNY and NYPD Jockey for Emergency Command

Peter Hayden, the Chief of the FDNY, will testify in front of the City Council today to make the case for why any emergency response protocol should be led by a joint NYPD-FDNY team, instead of the Bloomberg administration's current NYPD-led effort. Two weeks ago, Chief Hayden openly criticized the plan, calling it a "recipe for disaster," and it seemed that the Mayor's team sought to quiet Hayden by having only Office of Emergency Management head Joseph Bruno testify about emergency operations. This stirred up the City Council which then subpoenaed Hayden to testify, painting the Mayor as narrow-minded; the Mayor's team responded by saying the City Council never asked for any other officials to testify. Now Bruno, as well as Hayden and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, will testify, setting the stage for the battle for emergency command control. Hayden, a 36-year FDNY veteran with two sons and a son-in-law in the department, is the only one of the officials who actually responded on September 11.

And NY Times, thanks for that front page story about the NJ chlorine gas plant, aka "most dangerous two miles in America," that's just outside the city.