Chief Leader – January 14, 2017
by BOB HENNELLY
Last year the city had the fewest fire fatalities since reliable data was first collected in 1916, Mayor de Blasio and Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro announced last week.
The FDNY said 48 civilians died in fires last year, a 19-percent decline from 2015, when there were 59 deaths.
A Steady Reduction
According to the FDNY, the numbers continue a positive trend that has gotten traction over the last decade, with fewer than 100 fire-related deaths annually in the city. In 1970, 310 people died due to blazes.
The Mayor and Fire Commissioner also reported that average response times to both fires and life-threatening medical emergencies also improved—dropping 5 seconds for fires and 21 seconds for medical calls. According to the last Mayor’s Management Report, that reversed a trend of slight increases on responses for all emergencies, which averaged four minutes, two seconds in FY 2012 and crept up to four minutes, 10 seconds in the fiscal year that ended last July 1.
The continued drop in civilian deaths was accompanied by a nine-percent decline in serious fires, with 2,313 reported. Overall, there were 26,491 structural fires in 2016—down 3.3 percent. The FDNY also had to respond to 18-percent fewer non-structural fires in 2016 compared to 2015, with 14,734 put out last year.
The city’s success is not unique. According to the latest national data from the U.S. Fire Administration, since 2004 there has been a 21-percent decline in both fires and related deaths.
‘City Never So Safe’
“Never has our city been as safe from the ravages of fire as we are today, thanks to the heroic work of our firefighters and all FDNY personnel,” said Mayor de Blasio. “This record-breaking, historic achievement is the result of true teamwork by our fire and EMS first-responders, Fire Marshals and dispatchers, as well as inspectors and fire-safety educators who helped reduce serious fires by 9 percent this year.”
Mr. Nigro was equally effusive. “We pushed ourselves to save even more lives in 2016, embarking on a life-saving citywide smoke-alarm program that has reached tens of thousands of homes. And we’ve seen the outstanding results with a historic 100-year low for fire fatalities in our city,” he said.
The FDNY saw a continued growth in the number of medical emergencies in 2016—1,440,268, about 5,000 more than a year earlier. Over a half-million of those calls included life-threatening emergencies like cardiac arrest.
EMS’s consolidation into the FDNY in 1996 occurred as fire units were called out for 69,338 total fires compared to 134,039 medical emergencies.
Ambulance Crashes Rise
Over the last four fiscal years, ambulance collisions jumped from 699 in FY 2012 to 1,056 by FY 2016. In that four-year span, firefighter injuries dropped, from 10,738 in FY 2012 to 9,416 in FY 2016, which was up from FY 2015 by close to 500.
Last year Fire Marshals attributed 14 deaths to electrical causes, with power strips and/or extension cords accounting for fires in 9 of those deaths; 12 deaths to smoking, 11 to cooking, 3 incendiary, 2 from an open flame, while 2 were incense-related and 2 were caused by a volatile liquid or gas explosion. One death remains under investigation.
Jake Lemonda, President of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, said he agreed with both the Mayor and Commissioner’s assessment of FDNY’s 2016 performance.
“I would be remiss if I did not mention the supreme sacrifice made by Deputy Chief Michael Fahy last year,” Mr. Lemonda said, referring to the 44-year-old, who was killed by debris from a gas explosion last fall in the Bronx after he had successfully evacuated the Kingsbridge neighborhood where an illicit drug mill had exploded. He was the 1,145th firefighter to die in the line of duty in the 151-year history of the FDNY.
“These kinds of stats for the year also show the superior training our men and women are getting so they can be prepared to do their job,” Mr. Lemonda said in a phone interview. “But as the city continues to grow in population and tourism continues to flourish, it is going to be very difficult to provide this level of service without exploring the need for additional manpower. Although serious fires are down, we are busier than ever.”
‘We Need to Expand’
“This just goes to show you what a great job they are doing with the building inspections and responding to fires and putting their lives on the line to keep the fire deaths at such a low number,” said James Slevin, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association. “When you look to the future you hope those numbers stay down, but that is going to be pretty hard as long as the population continues to grow. Just look at the building and population density in neighborhoods where you had five-story buildings that are now being torn down and high-rise buildings are going up. These great stats for last year don’t diminish the argument that looking now and into the future, we are going to need to expand our resources.”
In March of last year, the city’s population hit 8.5 million for the first time in its history. Demographers predict it will be home to more than 9 million by 2040. Since 2011, the city added 1.2-million residents according to the U.S. Census. Municipal tourist data shows that in 2010 there were close to 49 million visits to the city. By 2015 the city had hosted 58.5-million visits.
No comments yet.