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Q&A
Improving living and working conditions in FDNY firehouses
0:57:20
ยท
163 sec
Council Member Kevin Riley asks about the department's efforts to improve living and working conditions in firehouses, particularly in high-demand areas. Commissioner Robert Tucker discusses the challenges and ongoing projects to upgrade firehouses.
- The average age of FDNY firehouses is about 100 years, presenting both aesthetic benefits and maintenance challenges.
- Ongoing projects include upgrading physical spaces and adding gender-neutral accommodations for the growing number of female firefighters.
- The department is working on various repair projects, with about 25 firehouses having significant repair needs.
Kevin Riley
0:57:20
Thank you, commissioner.
0:57:21
How has the department proven living and working conditions in firehouses, particularly in high demand areas within this budget?
Robert Tucker
0:57:28
Yeah.
0:57:29
The average age of our firehouses is about a hundred years.
0:57:32
That's both a beautiful thing and a challenge.
0:57:36
We have several ongoing projects to upgrade the physical space of our firehouses which include gender neutral accommodations and accommodations for female firefighters.
0:57:57
That population is growing and I'm very proud of that but we need to accommodate for that.
0:58:04
We are somewhat victims of our own real estate because these beautiful old firehouses are exactly that.
0:58:13
We have about 25 or so firehouses, maybe just a little less firehouses that have repair needs.
0:58:21
We have many, many more firehouses with smaller repair needs.
0:58:27
We have lots of projects going on right now to upgrade firehouses.
0:58:33
Getting back to the chair excuse me, about a project in Far Rockaway, we are going to hopefully get a shovel in the ground on that firehouse in August.
0:58:48
You probably know but it's worth repeating, those projects aren't done by the FDNY.
0:58:57
They're done in consultation but we're not ultimately responsible for building new firehouses.
0:59:05
I'd like to have more responsibility over repairing our firehouses and not going outside to that.
0:59:13
We have people internally in the fire department who are capable of that.
0:59:17
That's an area where we might benefit from increased headcount because of the cost.
0:59:26
We might see decreased costs on that.
0:59:29
But again, I've been very transparent with the budget director.
0:59:32
He's been very, very open and willing to discuss things like that with me where the curves connect.
0:59:41
And I've gotten a lot of cooperation from OMB on seeing it a little bit differently than how we've been doing it in the past.
0:59:51
But for the project in Far Rockaway, that's gonna be built by a third party, not by us, but firehouses are, the older they get, the more repair they could use.