NORTH BROOKLYN ESPECIALLY HARD HIT BY FIREHOUSE CLOSINGS

s New York City continues to thrash out its budgetary issues, one of the most hotly contested items on the Mayor's cutting block is the firehouse closings.

City Council Member Yvette Clarke, Chair of the Fire and Criminal Justice Services Committee, issued a strong statement in which she said in part: "I refuse to accept that closing any firehouse in this city is mandatory to meeting our budget needs. With all this fiscal expertise at our disposal, it seems inconceivable that, as legislators, we cannot find alternative means of meeting our budget demands without imperiling one life in this city."

And she points out, "Ultimately, the issue comes down to this: we can save money by closing firehouses. But we would only be saving that money to settle the lawsuits brought by the victims and families of victims who needlessly either died or were injured in communities where firehouses had previously existed. To close a firehouse today is to reserve a burial plot for someone tomorrow. And that's a not reality that I or anyone else in this debate should be willing to accept."

The issue becomes even more troubling when we examine the location of the proposed firehouse closings. Council Member Diana Reyna, whose district takes in Williamsburg and Bushwick, Brooklyn, stated, "I am concerned that five of the eight firehouses proposed to be closed are in Brooklyn, and that three of the eight are in North Brooklyn. In addition, a firehouse in Bushwick is scheduled to close for renovations at the same time, making four closures in North Brooklyn." And referring to the fact that throughout the 1970s and 80s, this area experienced many arson fires, she added, "I do not understand why an area that historically has been ravaged by fires would have such a disproportionate reduction in fire services."

As her Chief of Staff, Karl Camillucci, explained further, North Brooklyn is just beginning to rebound from these previous fires. "Thousands of units of low-cost housing have been built where all the empty lots once were," he said. "People are finally starting to move back into the community, and it's safer than it's ever been. Residents are just beginning to see things turn up, and it would be a real shame if this changed that. No one is saying that closing these firehouses would automatically lead to another decline," Camillucci continued, "but knowing that fire is what led to the devastation in the first place, why would you want to reduce services just when things are starting to look better?"

Brooklyn Councilman Erik Dilan feels the same way. "I strongly disagree with the Mayor's proposal to close the firehouse in Bushwick," he stated. "Now that new housing is being built and the area is in much better shape financially, to totally ignore the lessons history has taught us would be a great mistake. However," he continued, "I remain hopeful that the Blue-ribbon Commission will hold true to what it was intended to do, and we'll certainly seek to make sure they carry out their responsibilities. I'm waiting to see who will be appointed to this Commission on the Council side."

Many community activists are waiting to see who will be appointed, too. Melvin Foster, Chairman of the Neighborhood Stabilization Task Force in Bedford Stuyvesant, believes very strongly that, "A Blue-ribbon Commission has to include some of the neighborhood groups so that they can also give their input." He said as well that Northern Brooklyn's problem with arson fires isn't merely a thing of the past; it is a very real concern even today.

Foster pointed out, too, that each firehouse in that area is crucial because of the way they must all work together. "Especially now that firehouses are also responsible for doing building inspections as well as EMS runs, they are all needed," he explained. "By protocol if Firehous #209, for example, is on an EMS run where they're securing a patient with a heart attack and there's a call for a fire, they're not allowed to leave to tackle the fire that's in their area. It then falls upon firehous #210 to take care of the fire. If #210 is somewhere else doing a similar action, then it falls on #235." And Foster made clear that this isn't a matter of pitting one firehouse or one community against another; it is basically about looking at what really can be cut without hurting communities.

Anna Gonzalez, Chairwoman of Brooklyn's Community Board 4, said that along with worry over these other proposed closings, there is also great concern about losing the Bushwick firehouse that the City claims is only being closed for renovation. Reflecting the views of many people, she commented, "Even though they say it will reopen as soon as they renovate it, fat chance for that to ever happen." And she continued, "I am hoping that this Blue-ribbon Commission is going to be a fairer presentation of the people than what's been so far, because according to what we heard, the way they decided about closing down fire stations was by putting information into a computer, not by listening to the people. What information went into the computer, nobody knows."

And Gonzalez said that in fairness to the community of Bushwick which was once so devastated by fire that it looked like a war zone, now that they're rebuilding, the residents don't want things to go back to the way they were. "We're hoping that Council Members will push to make sure this Commission has representation from the communities so that the community voices will be heard," she concluded.

In order to best serve their North Brooklyn constituents, Assemblyman Vito Lopez - who organized a big town hall meeting around this issue - Council Members Diana Reyna, Erik Dilan, David Yassky and Bill DeBlasio as well as Senator-elect Martin Dilan plan to continue collaborating with each other and working closely with Councilwoman Clarke to reach a collective solution to this problem.

Donna Lamb can be reached at dlamb@gis.net.