Fire Alarm Boxes Going Up In Flames?

Mayor Bloombergs budget cutting proposal to remove fire alarm boxes from local streets will hit Queens residents the hardest, according to elected city officials.
The mayors proposal would eliminate 5,000 fire alarm boxes from Queens streetsabout one-third of the citys street alarm systemsaid David Rosenzweig, president of the Fire Alarm Dispatchers union. It is also generating sharp concern among Queens elected officials, because the boroughs alarm boxes cover the citys largest street system.
Last year, calls for assistance were made every 36 minutes from Queens fire alarm boxes.
The move revives a nearly two-decade battle between firefighter unions and city budget cutters who want to eliminate the citys fire alarm boxes and rely on phones. Back in 1995, both Mayor Giuliani and then-Fire Commissioner Safir failed to get the alarm boxes removed following a public outcry. A similar proposal, made 10 years earlier during the Koch administration, also failed.
The life-saving program became operational more than 100 years ago and currently employs 150 workers.
State Senator Toby Stavisky (D-16th District) flatly rejected the proposed cutback. "The faster an alarm is turned in, the faster the response time," she declared. Ms. Stavisky said that not everyone has a cell phone, so fire alarm boxes provide an additional means to save lives and prevent devastating losses. The senator said that her staff would monitor the New York State executive budget for fire safety cutback proposals.
According to Mr. Rosenzweig, the three most common ways for Queens residents to summon fire emergency assistance is either by home phone, over 3,240 fire alarm pull boxes, or 1,755 newer and more efficient Emergency Reporting System (ERS) street alarm units.
Featuring a phone attachment, the ERS speeds fire and policy emergency response and reduces false alarms. When used between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m., a Fire Department employee requests the nature and location of the problems. If there is no response, no engines are sent.
For the past decade, Queens legislators have charged that the boroughs fire safety has been short-changed, because it has the lowest percentage of the modern ERS units in the city. Manhattan has 100%, Bronx 98%, Brooklyn 67%, Richmond 50%, while Queens has less than 40%.
They have also expressed concern that elimination of fire alarm boxes would automatically put thousands of additional calls on an already overburdened 911 emergency phone system.
The Fire Department received an average of 40 calls per day for assistance from its street alarm system last year.
Key to the Queens legislators battle to save the street alarms is Brooklyn Councilwoman Yvette Clarke, who chairs the councils Fire and Criminal Justice Committee.
"The proposal to eliminate street fire alarms," said Ms. Clarke, "is a bad move to mortgage off public safety in order to save money." The street alarms, she said, speed emergency response, particularly in low and middle income neighborhoods, where cell phones are not as plentiful as in more upscale areas.
Clarke said the council committee has already indicated that it would require more factual information on the impact of the alarm box removals before any decisions were made.
Equally adamant, Queens BP Helen Marshall said that she saw first-hand the value of a speedy Fire Department response when she called in an alarm on her cell phone last Wednesday. "But not everyone has a cell phone," she declared, "and they must rely on street alarm boxes. Elimination of street alarms is definitely something that I would not support."
Calls to the mayors office were referred to the Fire Department.