Historic Insurance Unit Struggles To Find Cash

An insurance-financed preservation group, whose members have run into burning New York buildings since 1803 to save commercial property, is struggling to find millions in new funding since carriers slated it for extinction.

The uncertain fate of the historic New York Fire Patrol was outlined by Gregory V. Serio, the organization's interim administrator.

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

The Fire Patrol's mission is to protect and preserve the contents of buildings from fire and water damage. At its height, the patrol, which was one of many throughout the country, had 10 station 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 to perform the task of protecting commercial equipment and removing water from buildings.

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

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

Through the years, the activities of patrol members have been filled with tales of heroism. Thirty-one members of the service have died in the line of duty, including one who was helping to save others during 9/11.

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

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

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

In a management report written with the help of Mr. Serio, who is now a managing director for Park Strategies, a powerful lobbying firm, the Fire Patrol was found to be outdated, failing to modernize over the years.

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

It also could not quantify the value it provided the city's fire department and the insurers whose financial interest they were protecting.

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

Some insurers were under the assumption that the vote would dissolve the Fire Patrol, but it hasn't and the force remains in operation, at least through 2006. But its future after this year remains at stake.

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

Members are waiting to see a plan for dissolution, she said, and were surprised to see assessments for 2006. While companies have paid, she said, they are anxious to see a plan to end the relationship.

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

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

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