What do the five-alarm fire that claimed the life of a 64-year-old woman and displaced dozens of residents of a Flatbush apartment building and a police officer's accidentally shooting himself at a station house have to do with each other? Well, it turns out that dispatchers sent one FDNY engine company to the fire on East 29th Street, "not realizing the unit was already helping a cop who had accidentally shot himself at the 67th Precinct station house, right next door to its firehouse," the Post reports. more ›

Yesterday morning, a fire broke out in a City Island building with apartments and retail establishments. While firefighters were able to contain it, NY1 reports that the Uniformed Firefighters Association is worried about the response time, claiming "an inexperienced fire dispatcher gave the crew the wrong address.. But fire officials say the original call went dead before an actual address was given, and that the operator sent crews from Ladder 53 to the location of the call, which turned out to be a cell phone tower." more ›

Now that the NYPD got an almost 10% retroactive pay hike, the firefighters are looking for a similar boost. The Uniformed Firefighters Association want to revisit the raises for the years 2004-2006 where their annual raises were 3.15% or less. more ›

After two fires with fatalities and one with a firefighter injury, the Uniformed Firefighters Association and City Councilman Leroy Comrie expressed outrage over the FDNY's response to Queens fires. They say the new pilot dispatch program is endangering lives. more ›

Anger and frustration about the Deutsche Bank fire that claimed two firefighters' lives simply continues to mount as the Uniformed Firefighters Association says helicopters could have prevented the tragedy. Union president Stephen Cassidy said, "I think it’s very possible that the outcome would have been entirely different." more ›

Yesterday, the city announced that cigarette smoking by construction workers most likely caused the seven-alarm fire at the under-demolition Deutsche Bank building that claimed the lives of two firefighters on August 18. FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said, "Smoking was engaged in throughout the building, and particularly on the 17th floor, where the fire originated." more ›

One firefighters' group is taking their attacks on Rudy Giuliani's record to the videotape. The International Association of Fire Fighters, which worked with the Uniformed Firefighters Association (already a vocal critic of Giuliani) and Uniformed Fire Officers Association, produced a video called Rudy Giuliani: Urban Legend. more ›

The firefighters' union has ratified a new contract with the city that offers big pay raises. For instance, the salary of a probationary firefighter goes from $25,100 to $36,400 (current firefighters will get an 8.16% raise). The head of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, the biggest fire union, said the contract passed 56% to 44% and, "This is far and away the best contract negotiated by any municipal labor union with this city in this current round of bargaining." more ›

The city and the Uniformed Firefighters Association have agreed on a new two year contract. The deal raises firefighter salaries more than eight percent and increases the pay of starting firefighters by almost $10,000. Members working in hazardous material and special rescue units will see a 12% increase in pay. more ›

A strange fight has broken out between the FDNY and the firefighters' union. The union, Uniformed Firefighters Association, says that the FDNY won't allow firefighters to put up stickers of American flags, photographs of family or colleagues lost on September 11, mass cards or other seemingly innocuous items on their lockers. The FDNY says that firefighters are actually allowed to put up flag stickers or other "inoffensive material" and that the debate - which now involves lawyer Ron Kuby fighting for the union's rights - was unnecessary. Of course the FDNY would think that - it's not good when the press and public hears things like this from Kuby: "We entrust New York City firefighters with our lives and the lives of those most precious to us, and we don't trust them to properly decorate a locker?" more ›

Officials announced that victims names will be arranged at the World Trade Center Memorial, instead of being placed randomly. WTC Memorial designer Michael Arad's original plan was for a random listing of victims. From his winning submission:

The names of the deceased will be arranged in no particular order around the pools. After carefully considering different arrangements, I have found that any arrangement that tries to impose meaning through physical adjacency will cause grief and anguish to people who might be excluded from that process, furthering the sense of loss that they are already suffering. more ›

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Yikes: An Astoria man was killed when he tried to put out a burning mattress over the weekend. Koji Takagaka had fallen asleep with a burning cigarette, igniting the mattress, and his older brother Hiroshi tried to get the fire out by taking the mattress to the bathroom. However, the bed's flames became unwieldy and Hiroshi died underneath the mattress. Some fire safety tips via the NY Times:

The chief fire marshal, Louis Garcia, said that a mattress should never be moved under such circumstances because even though flames might not be visible, a fire could spread inside the bedding. Moving the mattress, he added, helps the internal fire to burst into the outside air.