NEW YORK
Attempts to axe firehouses ignite community takeovers
By Leslie Feinberg
New York
Attempts by billionaire Mayor Michael
Bloomberg to axe city firehouses, mostly in working class and
oppressed neighborhoods, have sparked angry protests. Community
members--young and old, Black, Latino and white--have taken
over firehouses. Some have chained themselves to the
engines.
Bloomberg began the controversial budget-cutting measure on
May 25, despite months of demonstrations, rallies and demands
to City Hall, Albany and Washington. Four were ordered fully
shut that day in Brooklyn, one in Harlem and one in Queens.
Others are being partially closed.
But community activists, young and old, together with
firefighters, turned up the heat in this struggle.
Dozens of chanting demonstrators blockaded the entrance to
the Engine 36 fire station on E. 125th St.
At the same time, in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, neighbors locked
arms to form a human chain across the sidewalk in front of
Engine 204 at 9 a.m.--the time set by the city to shut down the
station. A group of about a dozen protesters surprised police
by rushing inside, struggled with fire marshals for control of
the door. They locked themselves inside and held the premises
for three hours. Hundreds of supporters outside cheered the
actions of these 12 demonstrators as police dragged them out in
handcuffs.
One of those arrested was Steve Buscemi, who was a
firefighter for four years before becoming an actor. He
ridiculed claims by city officials that the closings would only
add about an extra minute in emergency response time. "If your
house was on fire, would you wait one minute to call the Fire
Depart ment?" he asked.
Firefighters agree that closing these facilities would cost
lives. (Daily News, May 26)
Activists also occupied a fire house the same day in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where, according to the May 26 Daily
News, "a jostling crowd used wooden doors and slabs to keep
open the doors of Engine 212."
A total of 20 were arrested at the two Brooklyn takeovers.
They were reportedly charged with criminal trespass and
disorderly conduct.
Fire marshals have been stationed inside the closed building
since then to impede another community occupation.
'It's a fight for our lives'
The city had tried to shut down Engine 212 in the 1970s
during the last mass closings of firehouses. At that time, too,
city officials tried to shift the burden of the fiscal crisis
through budget cuts, including mass closings of firehouses.
But when word spread that Engine 212 was being closed,
within hours some 300 angry residents massed in front of the
station to bar the city from removing the fire truck. That
night some of the protesters packed their suitcases and moved
inside the two-story firehouse, refusing to leave until the
city promised to keep it open. The occupation continued for
almost a year and a half, until the city finally relented.
Engine 212 was dubbed the People's Firehouse.
Now, residents vow to renew their fight to keep the station
open. They've erected a 12-by-12-foot tent outside Engine 212.
Members and supporters of the People's Firehouse camped out in
the rain, keeping shifts going around the clock.
"There are no ifs, buts or don'ts," stressed Alma Savoia, a
51-year-old teacher, to the agreement of four of her neighbors
alongside her. "We just have to keep it going rain or
shine."
If officials try to drive the fire truck out of Engine 212,
vowed Paul Veneski, the group will "wake up the whole
neighborhood" and block it from being moved. "We're going to be
here," he said. "We'll even block the [nearby] Brooklyn-Queens
Expressway and the Williams burg Bridge if we have to."
Veneski's father Adam was founder of the People's Fire
house. Three generations of the Adam Veneski family took part
in this current struggle to keep the station open.
They also promised to dog the mayor until he re-opens the
firehouse. "This is going to be a nightmare for him," promised
Diane Jackanin.
They made good on that promise on May 27 when neighborhood
residents converged on the steps of City Hall wearing paper
costumes that looked like nuclear protective gear. They pressed
the point that closing their fire station, which is located
near a radioactive waste storage facility, was
short-sighted.
The protesters said that if a fire ignited at Radiac Corp.,
which stores low-level nuclear waste from hospitals and
research facilities, it would create an environmental disaster.
"The city says it will take only a minute longer for other fire
companies to respond but that extra minute could be enough time
for a catastrophe," said Jen nifer Hilton. (New York Newsday,
May 27)
People's Firehouse Director Daniel Rivera summed up the
urgency of the overall struggle: "It's a fight for our
lives."
Reprinted from the June 5, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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Email: ww@workers.org
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