The Department of Investigation decided to conduct the inquiry after reading about Nigro’s apparent abuse of power in The Post, the sources said.
The DOI will “review” why a pair of trucks were sent to Nigro’s private residence in Whitestone on Sunday morning — making them unable to respond to emergency calls, the sources said.
The review is the first step before any potential full-blown investigation is launched. Such reviews are not standard procedure and are done on a case-by-case basis, the sources said.
Hours after The Post exclusively reported about the shoveling on Tuesday, Nigro personally went to Engine Co. 320/Ladder Co. 167 and told them he was disappointed that the story got out.
A senior firefighter admitted to Nigro that he snapped a photo of the dispatch order and showed it to other smoke-eaters. The picture eventually wound up on Twitter. The firefighter apologized to Nigro and he left.
FDNY spokesman Jim Long declined to comment on the DOI review. The DOI also declined to comment.
In Albany, Mayor Bill de Blasio tried to downplay the incident when asked about it after his budget testimony.
“Non-story, that’s my comment,” the mayor told reporters.
Faye Smyth, who was supervising the fire operations dispatch center in Queens when the call came in, told The Post that having two trucks go to the house is “not the normal response.”
She said the protocol is to send one unit to a “lock-in” — when someone calls 911 to say they are trapped by the snow.
A senior firefighter admitted to Nigro that he snapped a photo of the order, which wound up on Twitter. But the run to Nigro’s house was logged as “administrative” and the call to dispatch came directly from the firehouse, allowing them to send two trucks.
That kind of manpower is typically used by dispatchers only if “they also needed medical attention,” Smyth said.
At Nigro’s house on Tuesday, veteran FDNY investigator Randall Wilson — whose office conducts internal probes and reports directly to the commissioner — was spotted talking to the department commissioner’s wife, daughter and son-in-law.
While the FDNY said Wilson was simply there to keep the family members safe, sources said he was also likely probing how the story was leaked.
Modal TriggerNigro’s home in Queens, with a clear walkway, on Sunday.Photo: Dennis A. Clark
If an investigation is launched internally by the department, the firefighters who did the heavy lifting would be forced to go through an intensive questioning and have their phone records pulled, sources said.
Nigro issued a department-wide order last May promising to “investigate these improper releases of information and do all we can to identify those responsible.”
