An insurance-financed preservation group, whose members have runinto burning New York buildings since 1803 to save commercialproperty, is struggling to find millions in new funding sincecarriers slated it for extinction.

The uncertain fate of the historic New York Fire Patrol wasoutlined by Gregory V. Serio, the organization's interimadministrator.

“We don't know if we can keep going, but we are in some verysensitive and delicate discussions,” said Mr. Serio, a former NewYork insurance superintendent.

The Fire Patrol's mission is to protect and preserve thecontents of buildings from fire and water damage. At its height,the patrol, which was one of many throughout the country, had 10station houses and close to a 1,000 members.

Over the years, however, major cities abandoned their patrols,leaving New York today with the only major city Fire Patrol toperform the task of protecting commercial equipment and removingwater from buildings.

When a blaze occurs the patrollers rush in with tarpaulins andpumps to deal with the effects of fire hose saturation.

Today in New York the patrol has three station houses–two inManhattan and one in Brooklyn–and about 100 members, according toMr. Serio.

Through the years, the activities of patrol members have beenfilled with tales of heroism. Thirty-one members of the servicehave died in the line of duty, including one who was helping tosave others during 9/11.

For years, the service was financed through assessments made onthe premiums insurers wrote in any one of the five boroughs of NewYork, explained Ellen Melchionni, vice president of the New YorkInsurance Association.

She said the assessment, set by statute, was capped at 2percent, but has been 1 percent, for over $8 million a year to runthe service.

Insurers have lately come to have doubts over the value theservice provides carriers.

In a management report written with the help of Mr. Serio, whois now a managing director for Park Strategies, a powerful lobbyingfirm, the Fire Patrol was found to be outdated, failing tomodernize over the years.

The report found the patrol could not quantify the value of theproperty it saved, only recording the calls they made and thenumber of tarps used to cover a floor exposed to water damage fromfire fighting.

It also could not quantify the value it provided the city's firedepartment and the insurers whose financial interest they wereprotecting.

On Jan. 31, the insurance members decided they no longer wishedto sustain the Fire Patrol and voted to end the assessment, asallowed by law.

Some insurers were under the assumption that the vote woulddissolve the Fire Patrol, but it hasn't and the force remains inoperation, at least through 2006. But its future after this yearremains at stake.

“It once may have served its purpose, but this is not the 1880'sanymore and companies do not see the value,” said Ms. Melchionni.“We are hoping management will carry out our member's wishes anddissolve it in a timely fashion.”

Members are waiting to see a plan for dissolution, she said, andwere surprised to see assessments for 2006. While companies havepaid, she said, they are anxious to see a plan to end therelationship.

An alternative plan is still being hammered out, said Mr. Serio.Ideally, he explained, the plan would be for the service to findanother funding mechanism to allow it to continue and tomodernize.

“We're going through the paces and performing our due diligence,and exploring whether there is another financing body to be put inplace,” said Mr. Serio.

Mr. Serio seemed hopeful the patrol could be kept going, butalso willing to let the final bell ring for the patrol. “Whereverwe get to with these discussions, it will be the right answer,whatever that might be,” he said.