by THOMAS J. LUECK
The Fire Department on Tuesday defended an experiment with new dispatching rules in Queens, saying that it had sharply lowered response times.
It also defended the response to a fatal fire on Monday that the firefighters' union had criticized.
Francis X. Gribbon, a spokesman for the department, said the revised rules have reduced the average response time in Queens by 24 seconds since the 90-day experiment began two weeks ago.
Dispatchers in the borough, which has had longer response times than much of the rest of city, have been told to send trucks and firefighters as soon as the caller says what is burning and the address, instead of waiting for more information.
"We only have two weeks' experience, but the decrease in 24 seconds is really unprecedented," Mr. Gribbon said.
But officials from the Uniformed Firefighters Association said at a news conference on Tuesday that the revised rules contributed to miscues by firefighters responding to Monday's fire and to two others.
"The results have been disastrous," said Stephen J. Cassidy, the union president. Calling the Fire Department experiment a "Band-Aid approach," he said the city should assign more firefighters and equipment to Queens.
Mr. Cassidy also said the relatively slow response time in Queens reflected the difficulties firefighters face with a growing population, increased traffic congestion and residents who speak many languages, which complicate emergency communications.
The union charged on Monday that at first dispatchers sent too few ladder companies to a fire that morning, in which an 87-year-old woman died. Mr. Gribbon said that one ladder truck was sent after the first call, and a second one two minutes later, when there was "a second call for the same fire." He added, "That is protocol." Three pumpers were sent initially.
On Tuesday, the union said dispatchers had sent fire crews to the wrong addresses in response to two other fires, one in Corona on Thursday in which a 5-year-old boy was killed, and the other in Jamaica on Tuesday morning. Two firefighters were injured at the Jamaica fire.
But Mr. Gribbon said firefighters were not delayed in responding to either fire. The addresses that 911 callers gave dispatchers, although wrong, were close to the burning buildings, so firefighters spotted the smoke and were able to find the fires immediately, he said.
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