FDNY Responds To Record Number Of Calls In 2014
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – 2014 will go down as the busiest year in FDNY history.
Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said EMS and fire units will have responded to a projected number of 1.6 million calls by year's end, a record, 1010 WINS' Al Jones reported.
Meanwhile, Mayor Bill de Blasio, speaking at the Rescue Company 1 firehouse in Hell's Kitchen on Tuesday, noted that there were only 68 fire-related deaths, a near record low.
FDNY Responds To Record Number Of Calls In 2014
"This is the best five years in the department's history, and that goes back to when records were first kept in 1916 during World War I," the mayor said of the number of fatalities.
The spike in calls was driven by more people reporting possible gas leaks in the wake of March's building explosion in East Harlem, Nigro said.
"People that maybe would've called the gas company before now call us," he said. "So the calls are up, but it's a manageable number."
FDNY Responds To Record Number Of Calls In 2014
"Thank God there were only 68 fire-related deaths in New York City this year," de Blasio said.
The mayor said that number "Caps off a record low five year period. This is the best five years in the department's history and that goes back to when records were first kept in 1916 during World War I."
Nigro credited New York's Bravest for the low number of deaths, but also better buildings and equipment and less smoking.
The FDNY will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2015.
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