FDNY: Responding Faster Reduced Civilian Deaths

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow 'UNPRECEDENTED' FIGURES: Mayor Bloomberg announced a drop in civilian deaths as a result of fires, as well as quicker response times Jan. 12 at the quarters of Engine Company 201 and Ladder 114 in Brooklyn. Looking on at left is Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, who credited a new dispatch protocol for the improved response times.

In the past year, the Uniformed Firefighters Association pointed to two Fire Department protocol changes that it saw as a dangerous. When the dispatch policy was changed to move fire trucks out of the firehouse faster but with only an address and a basic understanding of the incident, UFA President Steve Cassidy said the lack of information would endanger civilians and firefighters alike.

When the FDNY said it would increase the amount of time fire companies spent inspecting buildings, Mr. Cassidy along with Uniformed Fire Officers Association leaders charged that this would increase response times, again endangering the public as well as his membership.

FDNY: Never Better

But Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta and Mayor Bloomberg Jan. 12 unveiled statistics on response times and civilian deaths that they believed vindicated these policies and highlighted the efficiency of the department.

"Never in the history of the Fire Department has it dropped in the way it has in the last six months, and we expect better results for next year," Mr. Scoppetta said, announcing the statistics at the newly renovated firehouse for Engine Company 201 and Ladder Company 114 in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn.

Last year saw a decrease in fire-related deaths from 95 to 86, the secondlowest annual toll in the last 20 years. The average response time to structural fires was 4 minutes, 12 seconds last year, down from 4:27 the previous year, which Mr. Scoppetta hailed as a general reflection of "unprecedented reductions in response times."

He also stressed that there were 26,862 structural fires last year, down from 28,004 in 2007, and that there were 17,192 non-structural fires last year, the lowest in FDNY history. But firefighters responded to 211,776 medical emergencies, the highest tally since fire companies began responding to such calls in 1995.

The new dispatch policy was insti- tuted in Queens in February 2008 in order to reduce response times in that borough, and the policy was expanded to the rest of the city in the summer after Mr. Scoppetta cited falling Queens response times in April.

UFA Noncommital

Mr. Cassidy limited his reaction to the FDNY's announcement to a written statement, saying only: "New York's Bravest responded to 473,335 calls in 2008. This is the fourth consecutive busiest year in the department's history. The FDNY continues to be the number one working fire department in the world."

Historically, Mr. Cassidy has been reluctant to embrace FDNY claims of improving response times, charging that the department's way of calculating those times is misleading because it stops the clock when a unit has arrived, when a truer measure is the time is takes until a hose line is established.

During the announcement Mayor Bloomberg brushed aside fears that the decision to discontinue four companies' night tours and the anticipation of new department cuts would adversely affect the FDNY numbers. He noted that when he took office in 2002, the city was suffering financially from the end of the "dot com" bubble and the aftermath of 9/11, causing firehouse closings and firefighter reassignments.

'Doing More With Less'

"The reality is we're going to have to do it with fewer resources," the Mayor said. "The result, we just announced today, shows that with fewer we've been able to continue to do a better job, and the same thing is true with the Police Department."

Mr. Bloomberg also believed that improvements in Fire Academy training, a new IBM computer system for building inspection data and changes to response protocols would allow the department to operate efficiently with fewer members.

"That pays off," he said.