FDNY members back Long Beach firefighters

New coalition claims city is moving to cut career unit; city insists current positions will remain intact

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The Professional First Responders of Long Beach, a coalition of active and retired members of the FDNY and Long Beach Professional Firefighters, is calling on the city to maintain staffing levels in the career unit as it revamps its EMS services based on recommendations made by the International City/County Management Association’s Center for Public Safety Management.
Courtesy Joe Miccio

A group of New York City firefighters and medics representing nearly 300 members of the city Fire Department who live in Long Beach announced their support for the city’s career firefighters at a press conference on Monday, criticizing a report the city administration is using as the basis to restructure the Long Beach Fire Department and EMS services in town.

The Professional First Responders of Long Beach, a coalition of active and retired members of the FDNY and Long Beach Professional Firefighters, is calling on the city to maintain staffing levels in the career unit as it revamps its EMS services based on recommendations made by the International City/County Management Association’s Center for Public Safety Management. The city hired the Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm to conduct a comprehensive study of its emergency services in the wake of the Long Beach Medical Center’s closure.

The new group is at odds with the city over staffing and a switch to civilian paramedics, which it called the first step toward ultimately eliminating the career unit through attrition, a claim the city strongly denies.

“When the city the size of Long Beach and the [City] Council continue to cut and cut and cut, there’s going to be tragedy,” said Matt Desjardin, an FDNY Uniformed Firefighters Association trustee. “Unfortunately, we’ve seen it so much with the New York City Fire Department … We’re here to stop any more cuts and to try to restaff a Fire Department that should be staffed where it was before. Without the proper manpower, you’re going to lose lives.”

But city officials said that their plan to hire paramedics would improve both public safety and efficiency. The administration sent a cease-and-desist letter to Billy Piazza, president of the Long Beach Professional firefighters Local 287, days before the press conference and accused the union of engaging in scare tactics. Though the ICMA report recommended replacing more than half of the city’s career firefighters with civilian paramedics — at significantly lower salaries — the city has emphasized that the career unit’s 19 active members would remain on the job.

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