By William Murphy
Newsday (New York)
Copyright 2006 Newsday, Inc.
A fire truck from the City of Long Beach went on a test run last week to see how it would fight a fire in a beachfront townhouse complex, but it couldn’t get onto the property.
Blocked from the main entrance by a newly installed city parking area that a truck of that size cannot pass through, the fire truck parked on an adjacent street outside the property and went to work:
The hydraulic stabilizers were extended on both sides to keep the truck from tilting, the bucket of the aerial ladder was powered up and over a 6-foot fence — and just below overhanging electrical wires — then across two rows of cars parked lengthwise and finally up to the fourth-floor windows.
“This is nonsense,” resident Glen Spiritis, a former city manager of Long Beach, said as he watched the demonstration, which was supposed to reassure residents they could be rescued in case of a fire.
City Manager Edwin Eaton said the next morning that the test showed that firefighters could access the Ocean Park Townhouses and the parking spots would remain.
Both Eaton and City Council President Leonard Remo said they were assured by Fire Chief Ralph Tuccillo that there was no safety issue. Tuccillo did not return several calls for comment left with the Long Beach fire dispatcher.
“This is not a real test. Look at the wires. And they can’t move the bucket [on the ladder] side to side,” Spiritis said as about two dozen residents of the 14-unit complex watched.
Entry to the property was restricted three weeks ago when the city painted lines for 18 nose-in parking spots in the dead-end street, which has the only vehicular entrance to the townhouse property.
The city said it was hard-pressed for public parking, particularly near the beach. It said it was not bound by a 1998 court consent agreement between the residents and the zoning board, which stipulated that new parking would not be created without court permission.
Resident John LaSpina, a businessman who watched the demonstration, said that he remained unconvinced he and his family were safe, and he did not think the demonstration was realistic.
“How are they going to reach the building in the winter when there’s a 3-foot snowdrift piled up along the sidewalk?” he said.
An attorney retained by the residents, Steven Cohn of Carle Place, said yesterday that they were considering the next step, which might be a lawsuit to compel compliance with the earlier agreement.