'Shouldn't Have Closed':
UFA Questions Plan To Sell Firehouses

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

A Bloomberg administration plan to sell six unused firehouses evoked a sharp response from Uniformed Firefighters' Association President Stephen Cassidy Oct. 13, who said the decision "only compounds the original mistake of closing these necessary firehouses."

STEPHEN J. CASSIDY: 'Should be expanding.'

According to a story in the Daily News, the Fire Department has declared several shuttered firehouses in lower Manhattan, Queens, Harlem and Brooklyn "surplus property."

That clears the way for the city to auction off the lots to developers or other interested parties.

Williamsburg Protest

Three years ago, residents of Williamsburg adamantly opposed Mayor Bloomberg's decision to close Engine Co. 212. It was one of six firehouses that he shut down for budgetary reasons.

Led by the People's Firehouse, a long-time community advocacy group, residents staged a sit-in at the entrance of Engine Co. 212 on Whyte Ave. for several weeks after the city disbanded its operation.

Their presence prevented firefighters from driving out the last rig in the house - a unit equipped to handle hazardous substances. Residents argued that Williamsburg, formerly a shipping and factory haven but now a heavily residential area, needed the special operations truck in case there was an incident at Radiac, a waste facility in the middle of the neighborhood that processes toxic materials.

The Bloomberg administration eventually reclaimed the city's fire truck by staging a late-afternoon maneuver with the Police Department that caught the protestors off guard. But residents, citing a housing boom that's created a population influx, never stopped trying to get Engine 212 back.

Others on Block

Also slated for the auction block are Engine Co. 204 in Cobble Hill and Engine Co. 36 in Harlem - two more neighborhoods experiencing unprecedented growth.

Mr. Cassidy said that "in this age of terrorism, the Fire Department should be expanding its assets, not selling them off." FDNY spokesman Frank X. Gribbon pointed out that the communities formerly served by Engines Cos. 212, 204 and 36 "continue to have better-than-average response times than most of the rest of the city. They are below the city average."

He stressed that the department always looks at the overall needs of the city in coming to its decisions.

Relocated Units

The FDNY relocated Engine Co. 15, formerly of Manhattan's Lower East Side, and Engine Co. 265, in Queens, because their old quarters had grown too dilapidated. Ladder 121 in Queens has also been shut down.

Mr. Gribbon refuted charges that mixed-use neighborhoods like Williamsburg were more vulnerable to chemical or hazardous material fires with local firehouses gone.

"We've vastly broadened our haz-mat capabilities by decentralizing them, so there are many thousands of firefighters who can now wear Level A suits, and Haz-Mat 1 is not far from that area," he noted. "We have haz-mat specialists, squads and rescues spread throughout the entire city."