Buffalo News (New York)

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo's firefighters could be a little safer now, with a policy shift recently launched by the city's Fire Department.

It's a common-sense response to recent injuries and long-held concerns, and it's a good move.

Firefighters will no longer put themselves in danger by simply rushing into abandoned buildings. Instead, buildings will be surveyed twice yearly, and marked as "vacant and reasonably stable" or "vacant and dangerous."

Codes will note conditions of floors, roofs, walls, stairs and chimneys. A database will be made available to CitiStat, police, dispatchers and other city agencies.

Last year, there were an estimated 13,000 vacant buildings in the City of Buffalo. The marking system is needed, given the fact that two firefighters have been injured, almost crushed to death, in less than a year.

Under the new policy, firefighting will not be banned in such a building, but the decision will be left up to the incident commander or battalion chief — who will have to provide a written explanation of the reasons firefighters were sent into a vacant building.

The new policy, put together collectively by Fire Commissioner Michael S. Lombardo and senior chief officers, represents a changing culture. Buffalo's 679 firefighters are both brave and aggressive in fighting fires, but should not be asked to risk life or limb for a building that either is set to be, or should be, torn down.

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