Newsday

With 27 new fire marshals and five new fire marshal supervisors, the unit will investigate about 1,400 more fires citywide each year and increase the overall number of arrests, Scoppetta said.

FDNY investigators based at Fort Totten handle investigations throughout Queens, the Bronx and northern Manhattan. The Citywide North Command, staffed by 37 fire marshals, eight supervising fire marshals and a deputy chief fire marshal, was already based at Fort Totten. But now it has taken up residence in a recently restored, century-old landmark building that once served as Army officers' quarters, FDNY officials said. The three-story, 12,000 square-foot building contains an interview room, a holding cell, a kitchen, a conference room and office space.

"Fire marshals are an essential component in protecting the security of this city, and this new base will allow them to conduct more investigations efficiently," Scoppetta said in a statement.

"By uncovering new fire patterns and the causes of the city's most tragic fires, fire marshals have the unique ability to prevent other tragedies from occurring -- by giving the answers New Yorkers need to save themselves and their families from the devastation of a fire," Scoppetta said.

The new base will supplement the Citywide South Command in Brooklyn, where fire marshals are assigned to conduct fire investigations in Brooklyn, Staten Island and all of Manhattan south of 110th Street.