Statement of Daniel Rivera
Executive Director,
The People’s Firehouse, Inc.
At the March and Rally to Save LC 104
June 7, 2011
My name is Daniel Rivera and I am Executive Director of the People’s Firehouse, Inc., the Northside Williamsburg non-profit organization that for 35 years has worked to enhance fire protection services in New York City, and that also is a civilian advocacy organization for NYC firefighters and related services.
I want to commend the fine mobilizing work that our sister organization, Los Sures (the Southside United) has done on behalf of Engine Company 104, and the work of Councilwoman Diana Reyna and her staff, for their steadfast opposition to the closure of LC 104 or any fire companies. We of the People’s Firehouse, Inc. pledge our support to these efforts.
Ladder Company 104 is the closest Ladder Company to a large area of North Brooklyn’s East River waterfront. The closing of LC 104 will result in significantly longer Response Times. Ladder companies from other areas will have to travel longer distances to respond to Fire, Emergency and other calls leaving other areas of the City with reduced fire protection.
The comments made by Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s administration on this score have been contradictory. On the one hand, it has been said, that fire companies are only being closed in communities, which are losing population. Yet even the Mayor’s own PlaNYC 2030 states that the Greenpoint/Williamsburg communities will grow by over 10,000 new residents. (Released in 2007, PlaNYC was an effort undertaken by Mayor Bloomberg to prepare the city for one million more residents). Indeed, thousands of new residents, and hundreds of new businesses, have already moved into our North Brooklyn neighborhoods during the past eight years. If anything, the Greenpoint and Williamsburg communities need more, not less, fire protection.
Sometimes we hear from City officials that we should not be concerned about the closure of LC 104, because “you still have Engine Company 221 on South 2nd Street.” This type of verbal slight of hand is an attempt to hide the true facts.
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In the FDNY there are four basic fire companies: Engine, Ladder, Rescue and Squad Companies, each of which have unique and specialized functions.
A Ladder Company, such as LC 104, performs the search and rescue functions. Their responsibilities include laddering the blazing building and venting smoke as well as fighting the fire inside the building; entry, that is forcible entry of doors and gates to enter
a blazing building and provide a secondary means of egress for firefighters and civilians alike; and, of course, performing primary and secondary searches of the building for fire victims.
An Engine Company, such as EC 221 also has an indispensable role. These are the firefighters who put the water on the fire. They are responsible for hooking up to hydrants, stretching hose lines and supplying major water appliances. They are also responsible to handle EMS duties and are usually the first line of emergency medical care that you receive.
So, you see, Ladder Companies such as LC 104 and Engine Companies such as EC 221 are both necessary to fight fires and to save lives. An engine company without a ladder company is hampered in its efforts and vice versa.
If New York were simply to implement the stock transfer tax, we would not have to make such drastic cuts in our budget. New York State presently collects a very small tax on each stock transfer, but then rebates the tax, now in excess of $16 billion annually, back to Wall Street speculators. The tax is hardly noticeable for anyone who invests in Wall Street, primarily hitting those who treat the Stock Market as a casino, making hundreds of trades daily. So, let’s tax the speculators and make them pay, not close fire companies!The People’s Firehouse, Inc. pledges our support to the people of the Southside in their righteous struggle to save Ladder Company 104, Engine Companies 206 and 218—and the other seventeen fire companies that the current City administration wants to close!
