Local Community Boards Want Engine Co. 271 Open All Nights

Following news that the Fire Department will close Engine Company 271 during overnight hours beginning in January, two local community boards served by the firehouse on the Ridgewood/Bushwick border are working to ensure that it stays open at all times.

During their Dec. 10 meeting in Glendale, members of Queens Community Board 5 voted unanimously to send a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg asking that he stop any efforts to close the unit— teamed with Ladder Company 124 at 392 Himrod St.—between 6 p.m. and 9 a.m. daily starting on Jan. 17, 2009.

Additionally, Brooklyn Community Board 4 was expected to vote on a resolution objecting to the closure plan during their monthly board meeting yesterday, Wednesday, Dec. 17. At press time, results of the vote were not determined. A report on the Board 4 meeting will be in next week's issue.

Engine Company 271 was one of four fire units that were ordered to cease overnight operations by Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta as part of the FDNY's efforts to pare its budget as part of a slew of reductions announced by the city in November to meet the current fiscal crisis.

Under the plan, Ladder Company 124 would remain in operation 24 hours a day. Engine 271 members assigned to the overnight shift would be redeployed to other units, which the FDNY maintained would help reduce its overtime costs and lower its headcount.

The companies chosen for the overnight shutdown, according to the FDNY, are in areas that would be "least affected" based on an analysis of various data collected by the department, including the number of emergencies which each company responded to.

As noted, Engine Company 271 is the first company to respond to fires and other situations (such as medical emergencies) in areas of Ridgewood and Bushwick generally bounded on the north by Troutman and Starr streets; on the south by Madison, Woodbine and Bleecker Streets and Gates Avenue; on the east by Woodward, Onderdonk and Seneca avenues and on the west by Knickerbocker, Irving and Wyckoff avenues.

The company also responds to larger events, such as multiplealarm fires, in surrounding communities including Bedford- Stuyvesant, East Williamsburg, Glendale and Maspeth.

If the overnight closure were to go into effect, as noted by FDNY sources, the closest available engine company would respond to a fire or another emergency in the Ridgewood and Bushwick area. Reportedly, five other engine companies are located within a one-mile radius of Engine 271's headquar- ters, including Engine Company 286 on Myrtle Avenue in Glendale and Engine Company 291 on Metropolitan Avenue on the Maspeth/Ridgewood border.

Located only blocks away, Engine 271 also responds to emergencies at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, noted Queens Board 5 Chairperson Vincent Arcuri. During last Wednesday's meeting of the advisory body, he told residents that the fire unit also is part of the disaster drill team at the hospital on a regular basis.

With Engine companies 286 and 291 "quite a distance" from the area served by Engine 271, Arcuri observed, it would potentially take longer for first responders to assist residents in need.

The letter to Mayor Bloomberg, Arcuri said, would advise him that "the plan to partially close Fire Engine Company 271 would not be prudent."

"The logistics are crazy," he said. "You're abandoning a whole area of southwest Queens and a major hospital at night. That's wrong. If it's somewhere else where the statistics are correct and is not a serious situation, we may have to accept it.

"But I don't know any area where that happens," the chairperson added, noting that, in one example, Engine Company 319 in Middle Village is the first responding company to emergencies at the Shops at Atlas Park. "You could never even think of closing that one."

Brooklyn Board 4 also vowed to resist any overnight closure of Engine 271. Chairperson Julie Dent said in a phone interview with the Times Newsweekly that she and District Manager Nadine Whitted talked with members of the FDNY about the situation at a recent district cabinet meeting.

Members of the advisory body were scheduled to consider a resolution asking the city to refrain from closing Engine 271 during overnight hours at their Dec. 17 meeting, Dent stated.

"As the community expands, I can't see any logic in closing it at night," she stated.

District Manager Whitted added that the potential overnight shutdown "makes [the board] nervous" given the past history of fires in the Bushwick area.

"We don't want to lose any services," she said. "It's not something we're looking forward to."

Both Dent and Whitted stated they would contact local City Council members Diana Reyna and Erik Martin Dilan about the situation and would rally the community if necessary.