Death Raises Questions About Response Times

A man was killed Tuesday night after he fell four stories while trying to avoid a fire that had broken out in his building in Brooklyn.

Fire officials say the blaze originated on the third floor, where a damaged power cord beneath a refrigerator sparked an electrical fire. As the flames spread upward, Clyde Brown, 58, fell from his fourth floor window and suffered a fatal head injury.

Neighbors told NY1 reporters that firefighters were slow in arriving to the scene and some suggested that Brown could have been saved. Officials from the fire department said that first unit of firefighters arrived at the scene within three minutes and four seconds of receiving word of the blaze and three other units arrived within four minutes — a better-than-average pace.

Average response times have improved sharply during the last month, since the fire department implemented a new dispatch system. The Uniformed Firefighters' Association opposes the new system, however, arguing that the change lowers firefighters' overall effectiveness.