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After City Island Blaze, Fire Response Time Concerns
By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 6, 2009
Modified Oct 6, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 6, 2009
Modified Oct 6, 2009
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Yesterday morning, a fire broke out in a City Island building with apartments and retail establishments. While firefighters were able to contain it, NY1 reports that the Uniformed Firefighters Association is worried about the response time, claiming "an inexperienced fire dispatcher gave the crew the wrong address.. But fire officials say the original call went dead before an actual address was given, and that the operator sent crews from Ladder 53 to the location of the call, which turned out to be a cell phone tower."
The fire was actually a mile away, but the FDNY says crews actually arrived within minutes. The Daily News' Michael Daly says some are putting the blame on the FDNY's new dispatch system: "UCT emergency dispatch system, which is supposed to save time and money by having 911 operators deploy fire companies directly. They previously transferred fire calls to an FDNY dispatcher... UCT stands for Unified Call Taker, but firefighters say it should be U-Can't-Tell because they are so often sent out with incomplete and even outright wrong information." And one of the residents of the burning building tells Daly she definitely called the dispatcher with the correct address—adding she was rescued from a ledge.
City Island's Ladder 53, which responded to the fire, has been previously targeted for cutbacks to the point of one firefighter allegedly making calls about fake fires.
Tagged
city island
dispatch
fdny
fire union
UCT
uniformed firefighters association
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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