Dispute Whether FDNY Improved Response Speed

By ARI PAUL

The Fire Department Jan. 6 announced a reduction in average citywide response times for 2007 despite an increase in workload, but one FDNY union questioned the claim, contending that there has been slippage in response to structural fires.

JOHN J. McDONNELL: 'A cheaper, slower FDNY.'

In a statement, the department announced that "the average citywide response time to all incidents was 4 minutes and 49 seconds in 2007, a decrease from 4 minutes and 54 seconds in 2006. In 2005, the average citywide response time was 5 minutes and 9 seconds." It also reported that there was a 1.19-percent increase in incidents to which firefighters responded.

'We're Better-Prepared'

"With the addition of more advanced training and state-of-the-art equipment in 2007, we have ensured our firefighters and EMS members are better-prepared to respond to any crisis, any time, anywhere," Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said in a statement. "This past year has proven that when it comes to handling emergencies, the FDNY does it better and faster than any other department in the world."

But Uniformed Fire Officers Association President John J. McDonnell argued that the response time to structural fires, which averaged 4 minutes, 27 seconds for 2007, needed to be reduced.

"Since the elimination of six engine companies in May 2003, we are experiencing significantly slower response times to fires, with an accompanying 15-percent increase in workload," he said in a statement.

An FDNY spokesman responded that companies are responding faster and fire deaths have gone down. Calling the department a "slower, cheaper FDNY," Mr. McDonnell continued that "In 2002, the last full year of a full complement of 203 engine companies, total incidents were only 426,542, and average response time to structural fires was 4:13. Measured against those 2002 yardsticks, that is a staggering increase of almost 64,000 responses by 2007 (or 15 percent), with an accompanying 14-second delay in arrivals at the fire scenes."