NYC Fire Patrol Targeted for Shutdown

February 6, 2006 – The New York Board of Fire Underwriters (NYBFU), a consortium of insurance companies that runs the New York City Fire Patrol, voted January 31 to discontinue the 200-year-old fire service organization, potentially eliminating the jobs of 80 members of IAFF Local I-26.

Created in the early 1800s to preserve the contents on non-fire floors from fire and water damage during FDNY fire suppression operations, the NYC Fire Patrol operates three fire response trucks and responds to approximately 10,000 alarms per year, saving the property of large businesses and residential high-rises valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Since its founding, the NYC Fire Patrol has worked hand-in-hand with FDNY to respond to major fires in New York. More than 30 members of the Fire Patrol have been killed in the line of duty.

“This is a bad, backroom decision that the NYBYU is trying to make with as little publicity as possible because the real problem is the failed, incompetent management by the NYBFU of the valuable Fire Patrol program,” says IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger.

James Nunez, president of the NYC Fire Patrol Local I-26, appealed to the NYBFU to restore and preserve the services of the sole remaining insurance salvage corps in the nation. “The operation of the Fire Patrol is a necessity in New York City because of the large number of multi-story buildings and because of the tremendous valuables at risk in these buildings,” he said.

The NYC Fire Patrol had made several attempts develop an open line of communication with the NYBFU to institute new procedures designed to help the Fire Patrol adapt and evolve in the constantly changing business environment, as well as to demonstrate the Patrol’s concern for the continued viability of the Patrol and the best interests of the insurance industry. However, the NYBFU failed to make the necessary changes.

Funded by a 2 percent surcharge on all fire insurance policies written in New York City, reports indicate that insurance writers were growing concerned about the NYBFU’s management of the fire surcharge money. Indeed, a report produced by the company that is acting as the effective business agent of the NYBFU condemns the organization as “caught in a veritable time warp wherein its governance, management and operations have not undergone any material modernization in decades….”

The report goes on to say that the NYBFU’s “governance and management has been so deprived of essential commitments of time and energy from its board of directors in modern management expertise over the last several years as to make it very difficult if not impossible to properly assess whether the NYBFU as an organization has outlived its usefulness….” Yet, the decision was made to kill the Fire Patrol, a critical program to the businesses and people of New York City.

“This is not a done-deal – and we will continue to work with Local I-26 leadership to make sure the major business owners, the public and the decision-makers in New York have a chance to see the value of the Fire Patrol and the mismanagement of the NYFBU,” says Schaitberger. “We will continue to fight to protect the jobs and pensions of our members.”