The below two press releases were distributed to all major media from the UFA and UFOA regarding response time and the effects of firehouse closings. The NY TIMES article that follows reports the Dept admitting its errors as a result.
*How Does FDNY Determine "Response Time?"
When one unit--any unit--be it a ladder, engine or chief's car pulls up on the scene and hits the 10-84 button to stop the clock, the FDNY considers that a response to your emergency, be it a fire or medical emergency. The UFA and UFOA have contended all along that these stats are deliberately misleading and do not reflect if fire units necessary to handle the emergency are on the scene.
The Fire Department's own protocol insist that there be a minimum of two engine companies to stretch and operate a hose line and one ladder to begin forced entry. Any official response time that does not require two engines and one ladder company on the scene does not accurately reflect a response of necessary personnel and equipment to start fire operations.
In reality, more than two engines and one ladder are necessary for a working fire but, at a minimum, until you have those three units on the scene, you can't begin fire operations. Until the Fire Department changes its policy to reflect their own written protocols, their response time statistics are deliberately misleading and purely spin.
*Statement by Peter L. Gorman, President, UFOA and Stephen Cassidy, President, UFA
We represent 10,800 uniformed members of the New York City Fire Department, who are unanimous in their belief that the downsizing of the FDNY will inevitably lead to greater loss of life and property. Today we are calling on the Bloomberg Administration to release FDNY studies on the effects of the closing of six engine companies on May 25th. The people of this City are entitled to all the data, not some sanitized version of the truth from their public relations machine. Attached* is data for the month of June for two neighborhoods affected by the engine company closings, data that show startling increases in response for adjacent companies. The Bloomberg Administration continues to shrink the Fire Department. As of July 28th, there were 462 fewer uniformed members of the FDNY than we had on the morning of September 11, 2001.
*Fire Department Says It Erred in Describing Data on Closings
NY TIMES, By MICHELLE O'DONNELL
August 12, 2003
The New York City Fire Department acknowledged yesterday that it had incorrectly described data last week about the arrival times of emergency vehicles in neighborhoods where six engine companies were
closed in May. A department spokesman, Francis X. Gribbon, called it an "honest mistake." Last week, department officials had said that while the arrival times had increased by 11 to 47 seconds in five of the six neighborhoods, they were pleased that the responses were shorter than projected. But yesterday the department acknowledged the figures were for any first vehicle on the scene - including ladder trucks or battalion chief vehicles - not just engines, as Mr. Gribbon said last week. Only engines are equipped to douse fires or handle medical emergencies. After the two firefighter unions questioned the findings last week, Mr. Gribbon had insisted that the figures, for June and July, were only for engine companies. Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta had rejected the unions' criticisms as "grossly unfair. "Yesterday, Mr. Gribbon said that the data was being reconfigured to exclude all vehicles except engines, for a better comparison. The unions contend that the times would be longer if they included only engines, although the department has never calculated response times that way. "The Fire Department's response time reflects whenever that first unit on the scene presses a button that says, `We're here,' " Stephen J. Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, said last week. "They're still a long way from putting out the fire." The acknowledgment came after union and fire officials discussed the report. "The whole situation cries out for an honest count," said Martin J. Steadman, a spokesman for the other union, the Uniformed Fire Officers Association.
