EDITORIAL

Raising property taxes on New York City homeowners is painful and increasing fares on public transportation is offensive. But cutting fire service in a city that has increased its population by 1 million in the past 10 years is deadly.

New York City politicians have been playing with fire since January, when the ill-conceived move to implement a nighttime closure of Engine Co. 271 on Himrod Street near the Ridgewood/Bushwick border took place.

To make a bad idea even worse, officials now plan to order a total shutdown of this fire company plus 15 others citywide.

The closure of any branch of the existing fire service in this city is about as stupid a move as can be made.

Just last week, amid the forced closing at night of Engine Co. 271, a three-alarm fire ripped through three homes on Wyckoff Avenue in Brooklyn, displacing 35 adults and 17 children. They were given assistance by the American Red Cross of Greater New York.

These homes were well within the response area of Engine Co. 271, but units from other locations had to be pulled in to fight the blaze and save lives. While they arrived in just under four minutes, a response by Engine Co. 271 would have cut that time in half.

The Wyckoff Avenue blaze was just yards away from the Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior Center at 319 Stanhope St. This is the home base for Assemblyman Vito Lopez, and he knows first-hand the devastation that occurred in Bushwick during the 1970s, when cuts in the fire service were implemented.

The burning of Bushwick and the South Bronx was like a firestorm that swept over New York City and was finally brought to public attention following the blackout of 1977. Suddenly, the burned-out wrecks of these communities were acknowledged.

Members of the New York City Fire Department who worked these areas likened it to war zones. Two, three, four and more fires broke out day and night. The cutbacks that were made within the Fire Department at that time were like gasoline tossed on a flame.

Rodrick Wallace is an epidemiologist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute who has studied Bushwick's fire history. In the 1970s, he was greatly involved in looking at those burnings.

During a recent interview, Wallace observed, "Fire service is like insurance. To save money, are you going to cancel your health insurance over the weekend?"

Assemblyman Lopez has spent the past 40 years working on the rebuilding of Bushwick. We call upon him, his colleagues in Albany, Mayor Mike Bloomberg and all the members of the New York City Council to fight against this latest blow to public safety in New York City.

Don't repeat in 2009 the mistakes of the 1970s, putting the people who live and work in this city at risk.