The FDNY needs to cut something to make its next budget and once again that something seems to be firehouses. Among the 20 firehouses on the chopping block? No less than the Hook & Ladder No. 8 Firehouse, which you might remember from such films as Ghostbusters. The news of the at-risk firehouses has people and politicians across the city up in arms as it looks to the average joe that the city is putting lives at risk so as to save "less than a thousandth of Bloomberg's $69 billion budget."
"If the city moves forward with any of these closures, people who could have been saved will die," Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, who chairs the Fire Safety Committee, warned yesterday. And she was by no means the only one!
“Today Mike Bloomberg willfully abdicated responsibility for protecting the safety of New Yorkers with his proposal to close 20 fire companies. 20 closed fire companies will affect at least sixty communities and the city as a whole,” Uniformed Firefighters Association president Steve Cassidy said yesterday in a statement. “After nine FDNY cuts including, 7 fire companies closed (2003/2009) and Engine Company staffing reduced (2011) by Mike Bloomberg, the last 7 years have been the busiest in FDNY history. The mayor has been saying that New Yorkers must do more with less and that is just what New York City Firefighters have been doing all along."
The UFA further points out that while the city is looking to cut FDNY services, the department is already quite lean, with 900 less firefighters than before 9/11 fighting 16 percent more fires than in 2001.
Bloomberg responded to those facts by pointing out that while they may be true, "response times are better than ever" and "death by fire continues to go down."
It is important to remember that none of the listed firehouses are for sure going to close—there is still time for the City Council to find money to keep them open or for some miraculous twist of fate. Sources at the City Council tell the Post that they should be able to save 15 companies. As for Hook & Ladder No. 8, you can take this tour inside thanks to Sony PlayStation:
