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by MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN
NEW YORK -- They've fought over everything from terrorism response plans to St. Patrick's Day berets.
Now the city and its fire unions are at each other's throats again, this time over whether firetrucks racing to emergencies should stop at red lights and stop signs.
The unions say that because of a new department safety push they're telling members to stop at every red light and stop sign, even though official policy no longer requires it. The city says the unions are putting New Yorkers at risk by slowing response times in an attempt to win advantage in running fights over staffing levels and fire company closures.
The dispute has raised tensions between the city and its fire unions to new levels.
Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta blasted the Uniformed Firefighters Association and Uniformed Fire Officers Association Thursday for engaging in "the very worst kind of union action imaginable."
On Friday the fire officers' union fired back, calling Scoppetta "at best ineffective and at worst incompetent" and saying his policies, not theirs, were responsible for rising response times that "should be examined by city and state officials for criminal negligence and reckless endangerment."
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday that the fight was caused by "a very few people with an agenda trying to slow down and hurt this city."
"You just can't play with peoples' lives," he said.
The unions say they began telling members to stop at red lights and stop signs after the department launched disciplinary proceedings against a firefighter and an officer who ran a red light in the Bronx last year, striking an SUV and killing a passenger.
"Apparently our message is getting out. Response times are climbing and the Department is considering changing written policy," to allow firetrucks to go through red lights, fire officers union President Peter Gorman wrote in a message to members last November.
The department changed the policy and now says drivers can pass red lights or stop signs if they slow down beforehand.
But the fire officers' union still is telling members to stop at red lights in accordance with national guidelines followed by most departments around the country, union officials said.
"Nick Scoppetta's guidelines are reckless and they're endangering public safety," Gorman said.
Scoppetta has angered the unions in recent years with budget cutting measures that have closed six companies and reduced the number of firefighters on many engines from five to four.
The cuts set the stage for a series of messy public battles between the city and its firefighters this years that have ranged from slightly silly to deadly serious.
Hundreds of firefighters sat out this year's St. Patrick's Day parade because Scoppetta banned their traditional green berets in favor of regulation uniform caps.
This month firefighters objected strongly to a new emergency response plan that put police in charge of hazardous materials emergencies because of the possibility they could be terrorist attacks. Fire Chief Peter Hayden protested the plan in unusual testimony before the City Council.
The International Association of Fire Fighters said Friday that New York is the only city it knows that officially allows firefighters to pass red lights and stop signs despite national guidelines that recommend stopping every time.
"The real world is that the guidelines are followed by most fire departments around the country," international union spokesman Jeff Zack said. "It just doesn't make sense to say that on your way to save some lives you're going to risk lives."
Copyright © 2005, Newsday, Inc
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