Last October the FDNY started testing a program in Queens called "modified response," in which firefighters responding to non-fire or non-life threatening emergencies refrain from using their lights and sirens and proceed to the scene at a more moderate pace. And though the firefighter's union has issues with the program the FDNY is calling it a success and will expand it into Brooklyn and Staten Island this week. Yay for less sirens?
The FDNY estimates that 300,000 of the one million responses the department performs each year are for non-life threatening and that this program will help prevent accidents like the one between a firetruck and a van filled with disabled people that occurred in Staten Island last month. According to the department the number of firetruck-related accidents in Queens has dropped 32 percent since the program started, from 77 to 52. "It was more successful than we thought," Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano said yesterday. "Not only are the firefighters safer, the public is also safer."
But the United Firefighters Association union doesn't think that the program will bring more safety to our streets. "The FDNY's Modified Response program is now going to be playing Russian roulette with firefighter and public safety," the group's president said in a statement.
To illustrate their opinion the union points to a March 4 basement fire in Richmond Hill that was initially reported as a gas leak and drew a modified response. Because of that bad report eight firefighters were injured and the home was destroyed. To which the FDNY fires back: "At any time, a fire officer responding to one of the above-mentioned call types can instruct all units to immediately respond in emergency mode based on additional information from dispatchers or by the officer's evaluation on scene."
We somehow didn't realize that firetrucks got into so many accidents. Which makes us wonder, if the crash tax gets passed, and a firetruck gets in an accident, does the other party in an accident still have to pay up?
