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When it comes to fighting a fire, every second counts. Every second counts, too, when it comes to measuring how long it takes fire units to answer a call.
After more than a quarter century, the FDNY has changed the way it figures that out, but the results are not what the Fire Department had hoped for. NY1's Amanda Farinacci has more in this exclusive report.
A 10-84 is the signal fire units send out to confirm that they're on the scene. It's supposed to be sent as soon as the first unit arrives at a fire, but sometimes, in the chaos, that unit sends the signal late. Sometimes the 10-84 isn't even sent until a second unit arrives.
For more than 25 years, the FDNY recorded every 10-84, whether it was sent right away or after a delay. But no more.
Here's how Deputy Fire Commissioner Daniel Shacknai explained the new policy in a letter obtained by NY1: “Now, the response time for any incident where first-arriving units fails to timely signal its arrival will not be included in response time statistics...Response times will be slightly lower based on this change because previous statistics included artificially inflated response times when units failed to timely signal their arrival at an incident.”
It's a point worth repeating. The FDNY thought response times would drop, but the fire officer's union says that hasn't happened, and it's a cause for concern.
“The times should have come down, but they haven't, which means we are taking longer and longer to get to fires,” said Uniformed Fire Officers Association President Peter Gorman.
Take the third quarter of this year - July, August and September – and compare it to the same three months of 2002, (2003 is not a fair comparison because of the blackout), and the figures show substantial increases in response times.
In July 2002, it took firefighters an average 4:14 to respond to a job. But in 2004, it took eight seconds longer, at 4:22.
In August 2002, firefighters got to the scene in an average 4:15, but in the same month in 2004, it took five seconds longer, at 4:20.
Finally, in September 2002, the average was 4:13, but in 2004, it took 4:26, a 13-second increase. Again, this happened when the FDNY was expecting those numbers to drop.
“These are the times and examples where the Fire Department is failing to meet its responsibility to the public, and that is to provide adequate fire protection to all neighborhoods,” said Gorman.
Union leaders blame six closed firehouses for the increased response times.
However, Fire Department sources say the increase could be blamed on union officials themselves, for telling members to slow down on their way to fires, after a firefighter was brought up on departmental charges when the truck he was driving was in an accident that killed a civilian in July.
The union says the firefighter was just doing his job, and they've sent a strong message to their members.
“It's important for us to drive safely, and if response times creep up because of this, then the department is going to have to deal with that reality,” said Uniformed Firefighters Association President Stephen Cassidy. “Traffic is part of New York City, and firefighters being charged given the fact that they get into an accident has changed the way we're going to look at this.”
The FDNY says its top priority is the safety of its members and the public, and this includes responding in as safe a manner as possible.
As to why there has been an increase in response time, department officials would only say there's not enough data to indicate a specific pattern.
- Amanda Farinacci
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