N.Y. Insurance Firefighting Unit Seems Doomed

Despite official pleas, the historic New York Fire Patrol--an insurer-funded operation that responds to business blazes and works to save commercial property--seems slated to end operations Saturday at midnight.

Yesterday, the City Council Fire Committee passed a resolution urging that the 100-member Fire Patrol be extended and calling on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to intervene.

But Charles Tedesco, treasurer of IAFF Local I-26, representing patrol members, said this afternoon there had been no response and an appeal to New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to seek a stay had fallen on deaf ears.

Ellen Melchionni, vice president of the New York Insurance Association, said insurers had decided to pull the plug on the group, which lays tarpaulins over goods and equipment to shield them from smoke and water damage, because "they are no longer getting any value."

"If they thought this was saving them money, they would pay it," said Ms. Melchionni.

But City Councilman Miguel Martinez, a Manhattan Democrat who is fighting to save the 200-year-old patrol, said that "for the money they [insurers] pay, it is not a large expense."

Ms. Melchionni said it costs insurers $8 million a year to run the service. According to Fire Patrol figures--which have been challenged--the operation saves insurers $100 million yearly in property claims.

Ms. Melchionni said when the patrol was formed in the late 1800s, it was a different era. "We have a New York Fire Department, and they do a tremendous job. Between sprinkler systems and fire-retardant materials, companies no longer want these individuals going in to risk their lives to tarp a desk. It's a money-losing proposition."

Mr. Martinez, who chairs the City Council's Fire Committee, said that in every city where fire patrols were eliminated, premiums had gone up as a result. New York's patrol is reportedly the last of its kind.

The Board of Fire Underwriters' decision on the cost-effectiveness of the patrol, Mr. Martinez said, was biased because the firm it hired to do an analysis was made part of the board.

Gregory V. Serio managing director of Park Strategies--the lobbying and consulting firm that did the study--was named interim administrator of the Fire Patrol.

Park Strategies found that the patrol was outdated and could not quantify the value of the property it saved--only recording the number of fires it responded to and number of tarps used--and could not quantify a value to insurers.

Mr. Serio, formerly New York's insurance superintendent, said in March that alternative patrol financing was being investigated. Today he did not respond to requests for comment.

Ms. Melchionni said the city's three fire patrol stations will be sold off to fully fund fire patrolmen's pensions, but it will probably require more money from insurers to close the operation down.