NYC is underreporting firefighter response times, union finds

New York City is significantly underreporting response times to fires and other emergencies, “in some cases by up to 92 percent,” according to a “bombshell” report from the Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York. 

“The Department has to go back to the old way of immediately transferring the calls to the Fire Department dispatchers,” Steve Cassidy, the president of the city firefighters union, told Editor-at-Large Gerson Borrero. “I think that’ll save 20 to 30 seconds.”

While the head of UFA criticized the de Blasio administration, Cassidy also called on other officials to review the figures.

“Elected officials. The five borough presidents. City Council members. (Public Advocate) Tish James. The comptroller. I think they all need to weigh in on whether or not these numbers are acceptable,” Cassidy said.

The report, released at noon on Monday, says that while “the city promotes the average response time to structural fires as 4:11, below the nationally accepted standard of five minutes or less. In reality, that time is 5:00 citywide for structural fires. For non-structural fires, the actual citywide response time is 6:03, compared with the highlighted 4:30, and for medical emergencies it is 8:11, compared with the reported figure of 4:31.”

In the City & State interview, Cassidy identified ways in which New Yorkers’ lives are being put at risk. He argued that the city needs to provide more resources to meet emergency demands by a growing population across the five boroughs.

In 2013 the City Council passed Local Law 119, which “requires the city to report true response times,” according to the report. Cassidy claimed that the actual numbers are hidden by the Fire Department.