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Our firefighters deserve their pensions (commentary)
Firefighters carrying 343 American flags representing each of their colleagues who died during the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center march up Fifth Avenue on March 17 during the St. Patrick's Day Parade, (AP photo)
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By Eric Bischoff
Special to the Advance
This letter is in response to Mr. Vinny Colverie's letter to the editor of the Advance ("End FDNY pension abuses," June 23). I would like to clarify many misrepresentations about firefighters that were depicted in Mr. Colverie's letter.
Being a New York City firefighter is an extremely dangerous profession. Firefighters in the five boroughs have the daunting task of protecting trillions of dollars worth of real estate, and the lives of over eight million people, and additionally, millions of tourists and visitors that come to our city each year. NYC is the most densely populated city in the United States, and houses the tallest buildings in the country. We are the number one terrorist target in the country. Yet the city is thriving, and is considered the safest large city in the United States. Thank you, FDNY!
NYC firefighters are the best trained in the world, and are required to train every single tour that is worked. NYC firefighters responded to an astonishing 519,798 number of emergencies last year. The busiest year in the 150-year history of the department. The FDNY is on track to far surpass that number in 2015. These emergencies include water rescues, explosions, car wrecks, train derailment, building collapses, medical emergencies, extrications, confined space rescues, hazardous material spills, boat rescues, plane crashes, elevator emergencies, and, oh yeah, fires.
The NYC Fire Department has suffered 1,144 line of duty deaths since its inception. Far more than any other occupation in the city. It was not that long ago when the Fire Department organized the greatest rescue and evacuation effort in the history of the United States, while sacrificing 343 of its own souls on Sept. 11, 2001. Studies have shown that NYC firefighters have an average life expectancy of over eight year less than civilians. NYC firefighters are three times more likely to develop cancer than civilians, and are twice as likely to have an autistic child.
Aggressive firefighting procedures are critical to protecting life and property in New York City.
It is the moral obligation of New York City to provide real disability benefits to our firefighters. When the tone alarm rings, and duty calls, no firefighter should ever have to worry about who is going to take care of their family if they are injured or killed while doing his or her job.
One last thing, Mr. Colverie, I have never I once heard a New York City Firefighter call themselves a hero. It is the people of New York City that they help and save, that do that for them.
(The writer is Staten Island trustee of the Uniformed Firefighters Association. He is a Tottenville resident.)
Special to the Advance
This letter is in response to Mr. Vinny Colverie's letter to the editor of the Advance ("End FDNY pension abuses," June 23). I would like to clarify many misrepresentations about firefighters that were depicted in Mr. Colverie's letter.
Being a New York City firefighter is an extremely dangerous profession. Firefighters in the five boroughs have the daunting task of protecting trillions of dollars worth of real estate, and the lives of over eight million people, and additionally, millions of tourists and visitors that come to our city each year. NYC is the most densely populated city in the United States, and houses the tallest buildings in the country. We are the number one terrorist target in the country. Yet the city is thriving, and is considered the safest large city in the United States. Thank you, FDNY!
NYC firefighters are the best trained in the world, and are required to train every single tour that is worked. NYC firefighters responded to an astonishing 519,798 number of emergencies last year. The busiest year in the 150-year history of the department. The FDNY is on track to far surpass that number in 2015. These emergencies include water rescues, explosions, car wrecks, train derailment, building collapses, medical emergencies, extrications, confined space rescues, hazardous material spills, boat rescues, plane crashes, elevator emergencies, and, oh yeah, fires.
The NYC Fire Department has suffered 1,144 line of duty deaths since its inception. Far more than any other occupation in the city. It was not that long ago when the Fire Department organized the greatest rescue and evacuation effort in the history of the United States, while sacrificing 343 of its own souls on Sept. 11, 2001. Studies have shown that NYC firefighters have an average life expectancy of over eight year less than civilians. NYC firefighters are three times more likely to develop cancer than civilians, and are twice as likely to have an autistic child.
Aggressive firefighting procedures are critical to protecting life and property in New York City.
It is the moral obligation of New York City to provide real disability benefits to our firefighters. When the tone alarm rings, and duty calls, no firefighter should ever have to worry about who is going to take care of their family if they are injured or killed while doing his or her job.
One last thing, Mr. Colverie, I have never I once heard a New York City Firefighter call themselves a hero. It is the people of New York City that they help and save, that do that for them.
(The writer is Staten Island trustee of the Uniformed Firefighters Association. He is a Tottenville resident.)
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74 comments
I hear a lot of people here bashing them, they work and contribute to their pensions. There is a board of doctors and fire dept doctors who determine if their injury is career ending. I am sure there are SOME that do abuse it. You want to be mad at the MAJORITY of them who WORK and contribute to the system and save lives doing so??
Did you know State & Federal governments spend more than $150 BILLION A YEAR of OUR TAX MONEY on four key antipoverty programs: Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, food stamps and the earned-income tax credit. On the MAJORITY who do NOT work and contribute to the system, but rather do nothing and collect. In 11 different U.S. states today, the number of people on welfare exceeds the number of people with jobs. This list of states includes NEW YORK!!.
The majority of the men and women of the FDNY work and contribute to their own pension and pay taxes. The number of people in the FDNY who do not deserve a disability pension is minuet in comparison to the millions who "Do not deserve it".
Thank you Eric for a great response! I am a retired nyc fire officer who had to retire at the ripe old age of 45, do to the work I preformed at ground zero. I have spent the last 13 plus years back and forth with my doctors appointments,being poked, scoped, drained and had a couple surgeries. I spent 23 years on the job that I loved and it was taken from me in a few short months of work at ground zero! I have four children and god knows what would have happened to the roof over our heads without my pension never mind how I would have feed them. These people like mr Colverie who most likely has never put someone else's well being before his own has nerve even making those statements. And what he don't understand is every last one of us that belonged to the greatest fire department in the world and had our careers cut short would not change a thing. Thank you again brother for calling out this fool!
No one EVEN THE PEOPLE WITH MORE DANGEROUS JOBS THAN THE FDNY should get a TAX FREE 3/4 pension with OVERTIME TACKED ONTO IT, before 20 years unless they are proven severely injured. The 75% that retired last year with 3/4 pension don't meet that criteria. Everyone of them should be investigated. It's know when someone is on "light duty" they still work OT to get boost their pensions before they get "let go". Pensions are great when it isn't corrupt like the system the lower teirs created. It's human nature. If you think this system is OK we as a society are in big trouble.
I heard FDNY are the only Fire Fighters who run INTO the fire ! The other fire departments across around the country fight the fire from outside. That alone makes them Super Heroes to me . Love my FDNY !!!!God Bless you boys !! !!!!! I don't understand why there has to be a question about their pensions ! If there is anyone in public safety who EARN and DESERVE their pension it is the FDNY !!!!!!!!!!!!!
@Panda Gurl That's an interesting hearsay opinion that is absolutely false. Actually most of the country firemen do the job on the side of their real job voluntarily for free.
@SIClown @Panda Gurl Tell the whole story: volunteer departments rely on volunteers who, when they receive an alarm, have to come from wherever they happen to be, pick up their apparatus then go to the fire. That takes time. In NYC, you have a fireman in less than four minutes. Which would you rather stake your children's life on?
And all things considered, I'd rather have a paid professional who has met a stringent training requirement standing by than a weekend warrior who does it on the side and may or may not get there in time to save my family.
Yeah, these six guys were standing around the truck sipping coffee...since they weren't FDNY, they saw no need to run into a burning building.
Fact is, any paid or volunteer firemen is cut from pretty much the same mold...they have a lust for the job (most of them) and want to be in the thick of things.
I like your support of the FDNY, but you shouldn't diminish the work or sacrifice of other departments.
i don't work for the city but do work in unionized construction.Our union has been self sufficient in keeping pensions funded and secure thankfully.As long as most membership is employed the finances keep up with the times.City pensions are different but similar in many ways to how we vest monies.The main problem I keep hearing in both the public and private sector is the soaring medical costs.HMO's have been a thorn in most jobs retirement packages.They continue to rack members over the coals and hit management where it hurts.Just my opinion.
If the job is to risky for you guys you should have taken the sanitation test or the dot test.
@mikeybeach420 You don't get it, and it's probably because you don't want to. They know the risks, and they do it anyway. All they ask is that their families be taken care of if something happens to them and that they get what the city promised when they hired them. I suspect you'd be pretty bent if your employer changed the game on you.
Agree for the most part but this whole 9-11 we walk on water thing needs to be toned down by some rank and file. Its not an excuse to drink to excess, beat your wife or get into bar fights.
@wowzer60: That's quite a projection that you're putting out there. It should be noted that the hero image for Firefighters was not assumed by those individuals after 9/11 but thrust upon them. There was no campaign to be acknowledged as such by any of them. You can thank the public for that, but as the pendulum swings so it must swing in the opposite direction in an attempt to correct that momentum and now the public must tear them down by claiming that their pensions are too much of a burden, that they're drunken, abusive, misogynistic racists. For shame!! Men and women literally putting their lives on the line and some dying for the city and all most people, most Staten Islanders, see is the food shopping for meals, days off not realizing that a firefighter did more in 48 hrs that week than most do in their 40 hours, and then buy the rhetoric about pensions hook line and sinker. I guess it's the nature of the groupthink beast.
It is shameful that most negative opinions are based on false points, that politicians will pander to those who think like that in order to gain support for their agendas while feigning a desire to reform the system. Sad really. Want to be angry about pensions, be angry at the politicos who take from the dedicated fund and use pension funds to pay for other things and don't put back the money leaving the real burden on civilian and unformed tax payers alike to make up the difference. Be mad a taxpayer funds paying political pensions for life for a do-nothing one term loser. Be angry at something real. Reform what is truly causing the woes of the tax payer and stop kicking the people who are not only on your side but will to get hurt to protect you. We're collectively imperfect but we always have your health and your life and that of those whom you care about as our first priority. Remember that the next time you feel like taking shots at people because you think you've got it all figured out.
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