By DAVID B. CARUSO
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - The leader of New York City’s firefighters union is blaming the city in part for the critical injuries suffered by a firefighter who tumbled out the door of a moving ladder truck.
Firefighter Joseph Moore, 26, suffered a fractured skull Friday evening and was hospitalized in critical but stable condition.
The accident was still under investigation and the circumstances of how he fell were unclear. But Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy said Saturday that there were indications that the truck, built in the late 1980s, was unsafe. He said the city takes too long to replace old trucks.
“How can it be that in a city with an annual budget of over $55 billion dollars that the lives of firefighters and the citizens we are sworn to protect depends on apparatus built in the 1980’s when Ed Koch was Mayor?” Cassidy said in a written statement.
The truck involved Friday was a spare being used because Ladder 13’s regular truck was being repaired, fire department spokesman Seth Andrews said.
The fire department issued a response to Cassidy, saying it “is committed to providing the best equipment for firefighters” and “has been proactive in addressing the issue of procuring and repairing fire trucks.”
The department said Wisconsin-based Seagrave Fire Apparatus LLC, which makes the city’s fire trucks, “has experienced recent problems in meeting its responsibilities both in supplying new vehicles and making warranty repairs.” The statement said that the department had been pressuring the company and that it had improved.
Seagrave CEO Scott Mintier said Saturday that the spare truck involved was not made by Seagrave and the regular truck was no longer under the five-year warranty. He said most of the department’s criticism about repairs had been addressed.
“Obviously our most important objective is that New York City has a fleet of fire trucks that are safe and well-maintained,” he said.