by ARI PAUL
Queens Borough President Helen Marshall has called on her City Council delegation to push for the reopening of a fire engine company in Long Island City and the addition of another ladder company in the borough's eastern region.
Queens has historically suffered from the slowest response times in the city, but the Fire Department claims it has cut down on response times by half a minute due to a dispatch policy aimed at getting units out of their firehouses faster. The new protocol is set to go citywide June 1.
Along with five other companies, Engine 261 in Long Island City was closed in 2003 due to budget cuts, and Ms. Marshall said in her presentation to the Council Members that building development in the area has increased, necessitating the company's reopening. She said that increased development in the Rockaway Peninsula meant that area has outgrown its current fire coverage.
"An additional ladder company would cover the Rockaways and neighboring Broad Channel, where only a volunteer company exists," she said in her presentation to the Council delegation.
Ms. Marshall also echoed the Uniformed Firefighters Association demand that engine companies have five Firefighters.
"Although this will not reduce response times to structural fires, it will get water on the fires faster," she said.
UFOA: Reopen All 6 Cos.
The Uniformed Fire Officers Association has called for the reopening of the six companies closed in 2003. In written testimony submitted to the Council's Finance and Fire and Criminal Justice Services committees May 15, President John J. McDonnell argued that budget surpluses since then have proven that reopening the companies would not be a financial burden.
"Following a tried-and-true formula, the Mayor underestimates revenues, and for every day of each of his six years, revenues have been in the black, and never in the red, not for a single day," he said in his written testimony. "In the meantime, public safety be damned."
He added, "In the three years prior to the elimination of Engine Company 261 in Long Island City, that unit had been responding to its boxes in [four minutes and 28 seconds]. In the five years since, the same boxes have recorded a 5:05 response time. The neighborhood had a better-than-average engine company until the axe fell. Now the neighborhood has worse-than-average fire and emergency services."
 |
