NYC Recorded Fewest Fire Deaths in More Than 90 Years for 2009

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano announced that in 2009 fire fatalities were at their lowest level in more than 90 years.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Fire Commissioner Salvatore J. Cassano on Jan. 11 announced that 2009 was a banner year for New York City, as the FDNY recorded the fewest fire deaths in more than 90 years.

Seventy-three civilians died in fires last year - a 15 percent drop from the previous year.

“It’s an extraordinary accomplishment for the Fire Department,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg during a press conference in the FDNY’s Operations Center. “The year 2009 was one for the record books.”

Prior to this year’s historic low, the fewest number of fire deaths ever recorded was 77 in 1919.

FDNY is also responding to fires faster than ever before. The citywide average response time to structural fires was 4:02 in 2009. This is 10 seconds faster than the prior year and 6 seconds faster than the previous record of 4:08 in 1994.

Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano speaks to the media in the FDNY's Operations Center.

New dispatch systems put in place over the past two years are helping firefighters arrive more quickly.

“This is a tremendous accomplishment, but these results don’t mean we’re going to rest on our laurels - this job takes work, a lot of work,” said Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano.

In the past eight years, fewer New Yorkers have died in fires than any other period in city history - with fewer than 100 deaths were record during six of those eight years. Prior to 2002, the City experienced fewer than 100 deaths only three times (77 in 1919, 99 in 1921 and 96 in 1927) since the Department began recording the statistic in 1916.

The city also had the fewest serious fires since the city began keeping that statistic, in 1996. Last year, 2,485 fires generated an “all hands” response (12 units and 60 firefighters) or above. That represents an 8 percent drop since last year and a 29 percent drop in serious fires over the past decade (2,715 in 2008 and 3,515 in 1999).

The drop in serious fires and fire deaths is the result of a strong effort by the city, working with the non-profit FDNY Foundation, to educate the public about the importance of fire safety.

Last year, 8,300 educational fire safety presentations reached more than half a million New Yorkers. Fire safety information also is available in 10 different languages and distributed in neighborhoods following fatal fires.

The FDNY and the FDNY Foundation also worked together to distribute 12,000 smoke alarms and 75,000 batteries at events in all five boroughs. A recent study found that in 75 percent of all fatal fires, there was no working smoke alarm present.

Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Cassano attributed the improved response times to an expedited dispatch program that began in June 2008 as well as the Unified Call Taking system introduced in May 2009. Under the expedited dispatch program, 9-1-1 dispatchers immediately assign fire units to an emergency as soon as they obtain and confirm the location and nature of an incident from the caller.

Other important statistics in 2009 include:

• There were 26,666 structural fires, the third-lowest in 50 years (26,244 in 2002 and 24,920 in 1959);
• There were 17,011 non-structural fires (such as auto, brush or rubbish fires), the lowest figure in department history;
• There were 25,378 malicious false alarms, the lowest level since 1963. The highest was in 1977, with 262,998;
• FDNY’s Emergency Medical Service responded to a record 1,236,730 calls, up 1.8 percent from 2008;
• EMS average response time to life-threatening medical emergencies (Segment 1-3, which includes cardiac arrest) was 6:41, up slightly from 6:38 in 2008, but still among the lowest on record. The average response time was 7:52 in 1999.