Fire Patrol Members Respond For One of the Last Times

Days before the city's fire salvage corps is schedule to close, more than a dozen members responded to yesterday's plane crash on the Upper East Side.

Some 20 members of the Fire Patrol, representing three station houses, were at the site minutes after the crash was reported, according to Sergeant Joe Crowley of Fire Patrol 2. Typically, patrolmen respond to fire emergencies alongside firefighters in order to protect property by covering goods with tarpaulins and by pumping water out of buildings.

Yesterday, the officers stayed on the scene for more than an hour, but did not throw their protective covers inside the hi-rise building due to concerns that doing so would interfere with evidence collection. "It was a very sensitive area because of evidence and what exactly happened," Sergeant Crowley said.

Yesterday's response could be one of the patrol's last. The 203-year-old organization faces dissolution as of October 15, after insurance underwriters voted in January to discontinue its funding.

Yesterday, patrol officials, union representatives, and some elected officials pressed insurance companies to delay the closing, or reverse the decision. "Here's another example of the service they provide," Council Member Tony Avella said when informed that the patrol responded to the crash.

Meanwhile, the City Council unanimously passed a resolution drafted by Mr. Avella and Council Member Miguel Martinez on the patrol's behalf. The resolution calls for the insurance industry to delay the shuttering of the patrol, and seeks explicit support from Mayor Bloomberg and Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta.

Representatives from the insurance industry maintain that paying $8.5 million each year to support the patrol exceeds the savings the salvage corps provides.