Bloomberg Wants to Stamp
Out Costly City Fire
Alarm Boxes, But Union
Says It's a Dangerous
Move
NY Daily News
1/30/10
Mayor Bloomberg wants to
extinguish fire alarm
boxes from city streets.
Bloomberg pitched the
fiery move this week as
part of his budget for
fiscal year 2011, saying
it would save FDNY $2.5
million.
Since 85% of calls made
through the street boxes
are false alarms,
Bloomberg said, "In the
days where everybody has
cell phones ... the city
would be just as safe
without them."
Only 140 structural
fires last year out of
26,666 were first called
in through an alarm box
- and phone calls on
those fires came in
after the boxes were
pulled, according to the
FDNY.
But a change in the law
is needed to scrap the
15,000 boxes because in
1997 a federal judge
said such a move
violates the civil
rights of the deaf.
The court decision came
a year after then-Mayor
Rudy Giuliani and the
City Council agreed to
shrink the outdated
system. Other cities,
including Los Angeles,
Philadelphia and Chicago
have already yanked
them.
City Hall argues there
is new technology that
allows the deaf to
contact authorities
quickly.
But the fire dispatchers
union said relying
exclusively on phones in
an emergency is
dangerous.
"We know the phone
system is not
dependable. On 9/11, for
instance, the phones
stopped working," said
David Rosenzweig,
president of the fire
dispatchers union.
FDNY officials say the
boxes are costly to
maintain and they'll
eliminate 19
electricians through
attrition and cancel a
contract with a private
vendor by deactivating
the system.
klucadamo@nydailynews.com
