What do the five-alarm fire that claimed the life of a 64-year-old woman and displaced dozens of residents of a Flatbush apartment building and a police officer's accidentally shooting himself at a station house have to do with each other? Well, it turns out that dispatchers sent one FDNY engine company to the fire on East 29th Street, "not realizing the unit was already helping a cop who had accidentally shot himself at the 67th Precinct station house, right next door to its firehouse," the Post reports.
The error is being investigated, and the Post adds, "Officials are trying to determine if the dispatchers mistakenly assigned Engine Co. 248 two jobs at once, or if the company members went to the police station on their own and delayed reporting it. It was more than a minute before the company alerted dispatchers, who then had to scramble to find another company, the sources said." The engine that did respond arrived over six minutes after the fire was first called in.
However, it's unclear if the extra minute would have saved the woman's life. The FDNY claims an open door and the high winds contributed to the challenging conditions that the firefighters faced (it took over seven hours for the fire to be placed under control). A source, though, tells the Post, "It did make a difference because they [Engine Co. 248] weren't there to stretch a [water] line."
Uniformed Firefighters Association president Steven Cassidy said that Mayor Bloomberg's budget cuts were the real culprit, because the responding units were each short a firefighter. A UFA press release adds, "In Saturday's Flatbush Inferno with heavy fire on floors 4-7, one firefighter operating on the 4th floor was forced to evacuate out a window - rescued by a ladder company bucket - but not before sustaining burns to his face and ears. Members of Ladder 147 had to also evacuate out a window to a fire escape, while a captain was forced to transmit a dreaded mayday call when the apartment where his company was searching for trapped victims was engulfed in flames."
