Big ax looming at the FDNY: Threat of 1,000 layoffs, closing of 62 fire

The FDNY is bracing for doomsday.

The department will be forced to close a staggering 62 fire companies and lay off more than 1,000 firefighters if the bad-news state budget becomes reality, Commissioner Salvatore Cassano told the City Council Wednesday.

"We would be very, very taxed," warned a grim-faced Cassano. "Our operations would be impacted and every neighborhood in this city would feel the effect."

Even if lawmakers in Albany - already facing an April 1 deadline and a $9 billion budget gap - find a way to pump in more cash, the city's fiscal woes may still force the FDNY to shutter 20 companies, Cassano warned.

"We're going to try not to close a single company or a single firehouse," Cassano told the Fire and Criminal Justice Services Committee, "but if we have to, we will."

Sixteen fire companies were set to close last year until the Council restored funding for an extra 12 months.

But those companies - which were never identified - are still slated to close this July, and an additional four are scheduled to be shut down later in the year, creating a savings of $37.4 million, Cassano said.

The department currently has 198 engine companies and 143 ladder companies.

FDNY officials are still calculating which companies - or potentially entire firehouses - will be scrapped, although the prospect of any closures infuriated Council members and the fire unions.

"We cannot shortchange the safety of New Yorkers by forcing these cuts on our taxpayers," saidCity Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Queens). "Response times will go up throughout the city."

"The very young and the very old are the most vulnerable in fires and most at risk if there are cuts," said Al Hagan, head of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association.

"Is it morally right to balance the budget on the weary shoulders of our elders or the tender backs of the young?" Hagan asked.

The FDNY will try to close the budget gap by issuing violations to building owners whose fire detection systems set off false alarms, Cassano said.

The department is also fighting in court for the authority to scrap curbside alarm boxes, a potential $6 million savings on maintenance.

FDNY officials are prepared to battle the fire unions to reduce the staffing at 60 companies from five firefighters to four.

"If it's a choice between going to four-man engines - which most companies have anyway - or closing companies," said Cassano, "I know what I would do."

The unions have long opposed the change, saying it would affect public safety.