By Brian Lockhart
After weeks of delays, 15 firefighters have been transferred from the Union Street station in Flushing, and there are more moves to come, said Michael Regan, spokesman for the city Fire Department.
“The fire commissioner intends on transferring everyone out of that house,” Regan said in an interview. “Those plans have not changed.”
The shakeup at Engine Company 273 and Ladder Company 129 on Union Street was first announced in mid-October. Fire Department officials said there was a persistent attitude problem at the station and the last and best resort was “the fresh approach,” that is, gradually rotating the entire force of 56 firefighters out of the two companies.
It has been reported that the firefighters stationed at the site had slow medical emergency response times and had problems with their superiors.
“The department believes that the residents of Flushing were not getting the best and most aggressive service that they have a right to get,” Regan said.
The transfers had been delayed for the past few months by a joint court action by the Uniformed Firefighters Association and the Uniformed Firefighters Officers Association. An appellate court, however, two weeks ago ruled that the transfers could go forward, according to UFA spokesman Tom Butler.
As of 6 p.m. Jan. 19, 15 firefighters had been transferred out of the Union Street station, Regan said.
“Each firefighter was asked to provide the department with a wish list of where they'd like to go,” he said. “It was honored in each case.”
Regan said 11 new staff members had been transferred to the station and the four remaining vacancies would be filled.
He noted that for a firefighter looking for a variety of challenges, Flushing was a desirable place to work.
“There are high-rise buildings in Flushing, there are attached row houses, large shopping centers,” Regan said.
The transfers were the first of three waves of staff changes, the next of which Regan said would occur after the new firefighters have become acclimated to the area.
“We think it's important for the residents of Flushing, who are our primary concern, to have continuity,” Regan said.
Both firefighters' unions as well as elected officials from Flushing criticized the plans to transfer the entire department on the grounds that it might endanger residents who rely on the services of firemen and women who have a good knowledge of the area and all its nooks and crannies.
Butler said the unions had “extended every legal avenue” but were continuing to negotiate with the Fire Department to have the 15 newly transferred firefighters returned to Flushing. Regan could not confirm this.
“Our hope is that service be restored to this community as it was intended and as it was,” he said.
Butler said some of the staff who were transferred were among the more than 150 firefighters who battled a three-alarm fire that had engulfed the sixth floor of a six-story building at 142-46 Sanford Ave. early last Tuesday morning.
“What if those were all firefighters who weren't familiar with it?” he asked. “These firefighters knew that building because they'd been doing inspections there for years, so that's why the familiarity with the neighborhood does mean so much.”
Asked for his opinion on the transfers, Adrian Joyce, chairman of Community Board 7, said “it was an internal problem. They addressed it and I'm comfortable they had our best interests in mind.”
City Councilwoman Julia Harrison (D-Flushing) said “whatever the administration decides to do is their business as long as it doesn't take away from the superb coverage we've enjoyed until now,”
State Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing) said transferring the firefighters in stages was sensible, but she still thought changing the entire staff of the station was wrong.
“It seems to me that all they had to do is transfer the ring leaders,” Stavisky said.
