Good morning my name is James Nunez, President of the Uniformed Fire Patrolman’s Association.  I am appearing here today to discuss with you the impending closure of the New York Fire Patrol and how the closure will have a detrimental impact on the City and the business community. 

           The New York Fire Patrol is an organization, which is funded, and run by the insurance companies who write fire insurance in the City.  Those insurance companies are assessed a small portion of their aggregate policy premiums to fund and run the New York Board of Fire Underwriters and the Fire Patrol.  The mission of the Fire Patrol is to prevent water damages to the floors below a fire or other emergency.  To accomplish this, we respond to commercial building fires and operate on the floors below the fire spreading waterproof canvas tarps over the contents. 

 The New York Board of Fire Underwriters, hired Park Strategies a firm owned by former State Senator Al D’Amato to write a report, which they used to close the Patrol.  They assigned Mr. Greg Serio to write this report and placed him in charge of the daily administration of the Board and Fire Patrol.   This report used outdated statistics from 1967 assessments and placed the blame for gross mismanagement and failure to modernize on the members of the Board.  On January 31, 2006 the insurance companies using this report as the impetus, voted to cease funding of the Fire Patrol, effectively closing an important emergency service, which has proudly and honorably served this City and the business community for 170 years.  Over the years the Board has consistently under reported the savings generated from Patrol operations by over one hundred million dollars.  In a 1994 report to the Fire Patrol and Finance Committees Mr. Alexander Pirnie President of the New York Board of Fire Underwriters states:

“ We have pointed out on many occasions that the recorded savings, which are far from the real total, indicate that for every dollar spent two are saved.”

      The New York City Fire Department has over the years honored the Patrol for their heroic actions at fires and other emergencies.  In 1993 the Fire Patrol responded to the bombing of the World Trade Center and actively assisted in the evacuation of the towers, for their actions the Fire Department honored the Patrol and its members.  Once again the Fire Patrol responded to the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and assisted in evacuating as many civilians as possible, unfortunately one Patrolman, Keith Roma was killed as he led several civilians away from the collapsing tower.  Over the history of the Fire Patrol we have lost 32 members in the performance of their jobs, for the business community and the City.   

          When the Patrol closes, who is expected to pick up this workload, the Fire Department?  Mr. Peter Gorman President of the Officers Association and Mr. Steven Cassidy President of the Firefighters Association have stated that closing the Patrol will place an undue strain on their resources.   They would have to keep companies at water leaks, sprinkler discharges, and doing salvage work something the Patrol would do, thereby delaying responses to fires.  This delay in getting companies to fires could possibly cost the lives of City residents. 

          When faced with the facts that the Fire Patrol is beneficial and does good work for the community why would the Insurance industry want to shut down the Patrol?  The answer is simple, blatant corporate greed!  The Board enjoys a not for profit tax exempt status due to the work of the Patrol, yet they own three Patrol Houses that they can sell for a profit.  The total price for these properties is incalculable due to the air rights over each house, but could bring in multi million tax-exempt dollars. 

           What are some of the possible consequences of not having a Patrol available to respond to commercial building fires and emergencies? 

1.    Destruction of important files and documents such as computer data, medical records, invaluable art and literary collections.

2.    Loss of equipment necessary to the operations of the business such as computers, printing presses, garment patterns and machines.

3.    Death of the business.

    Nearly Ninety Five percent of disasters are caused by water damage and according to the University of Texas, Center for Research on Information Systems,

 Ninety percent of companies who lose their data in a disaster are out of business within two years.  Nearly fifty percent never reopen their doors at all after the disaster. 

           I implore you to take action to save the Fire Patrol which provides an invaluable service to the City, the business community, and the citizens of New York City.  Without the Patrol many businesses will be ruined and be forced to close which will cause jobs to be lost, income diminished, and lose of tax revenue to the City.  How will it affect the insurance companies, they will raise the premiums to the businesses, this cost will be then passed onto the consumer in the form of higher prices, and if the business files a claim the insurance companies may drop them as they are known to do.  

 I thank you for your time and consideration to this important matter and urge you to take action to save this important emergency service and stop this unbelievable corporate greed.