FDNY Lost in Forest

To the Editor:

The FDNY, including Fire Commissioner Scoppetta, says "a firehouse is a workplace like any other." And in that statement lies the biggest problem of all with the people who actually do the firefighting.

There's no logic to comparing a firehouse with an office, where people show up every day at 9 a.m. and pound out a few reports on their typewriters safely behind their cozy little desks, feeling so very confident that when the clock strikes 5 p.m., they will be merrily on their way home. Listing firefighters under the same heading as "office workers," or "city employees" projects exactly what the people who run the city really think of firefighters.

No other department - absolutely no other city department - has given more blood and guts and life and limb for the welfare of this once-great city than the men of the FDNY. They should be listed under their own heading. When, if ever, will Bloomberg, Scoppetta, and all the bigwigs in between come to realize that those in the FDNY - and I'm only talking about the men who are on the line, in the firehouses 24/7 - so willingly and bravely never fail to do the job they were hired to do.

Who gives a rat's behind what the 343 great guys lost on 9/11 had pasted on their lockers, or any of the 1,300 men of the FDNY who gave their lives through the years for this city.

To Bloomberg, Scoppetta and all the mucky-mucks: stop trying to screw up a well-oiled machine with petty nonsense. Count your blessings and thank your God for the best firefighters in the world.

RAYMOND L. HICKEY