Adams reverses 5th firefighter cuts

The city is reinstating fifth firefighters who had been removed from 20 engine companies in December as part of budget cuts announced in November, Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday afternoon. The mayor also said the city would continue paying 190 uniformed FDNY members who had been working on light duty and were set to be taken off the department’s payroll. 

In announcing the restorations, Adams said they were possible because of a 20-percent reduction in the city’s spending on migrants this fiscal year. 

“More firefighters on the job is always a good thing,” Adams said during a City Hall briefing, adding that the restoration was due to “strong fiscal management.”  

FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh, who joined Adams at the briefing, thanked the mayor and his budget team for reinstating the firefighters.  

“We need the additional personnel, the additional experienced personnel and resources to tackle some of these new challenges that we’re confronting, and this will do exactly that,” she said. “We're incredibly thrilled to have this and especially during these particularly difficult winter months, we definitely know that our members and New Yorkers will feel safer and see us arrive even faster to emergencies.” 

Kavanagh explained that reinstating the fifth firefighters will mean that the engine companies arriving at the scene of a fire will be able to get water on those fires faster, a particularly crucial component in fighting fires caused by exploding lithium-ion batteries and in responding to emergencies caused by extreme weather as call volumes increase, she added.  

The mayor’s Office of Management and Budget had projected that the fifth firefighter cuts and payroll trims would together save the city more than $22 million this  fiscal year, which ends in June.

‘The right call on this matter’ 

The president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, Andy Ansbro, had blasted the decision to cut the fifth firefighters when those trims were announced. 

“In a job where seconds matter, this will undoubtedly cost minutes,” he said. “This will be the difference between life and death."   

Ansbro didn’t respond to a request for comment this week, but he told the New York Post that he was “very happy” to hear the cuts had been reinstated. 

The Uniformed Fire Officers Association welcomed the reinstatements, its recording secretary, Mike Tracey, told The Chief in a statement. 

Council Member Joann Ariola, the past chair of the Council’s Committee on Fire and Emergency Management, called the reinstatements a win for residents. 

“From the moment these cuts were announced, I joined with leaders of the UFA, UFOA, PBA, and others in calling for the mayor to rethink these decisions — decisions which no doubt would have put the safety of New Yorkers at risk and which would have made the work of our police and firefighters more difficult,” Ariola said in a statement. “I'm very happy to see that the administration has heard us, and is making the right call on this matter." 

Adams also announced the restoration of a 600-person class of NYPD recruits that was among five that were canceled as part of the department-wide 5-percent budget cuts announced in November. The recruits will begin their academy training in April and join the department as scheduled six months later.