Thousands Protest Brooklyn Firehouse Closing

Thousands of helmeted firemen, the smell of smoke still clinging to their uniform coats, marched across the Brooklyn Bridge and surrounded City Hall Thursday, tying up traffic to protest city tactics used in the closing of a firehouse.

The demonstration underscored outrage over the methods used to shut Engine Company 232, in Brooklyn’s Brownsville section, as part of an effort to trim the city budget. Reminiscent of rallies at the height of New York’s fiscal crisis more than a decade ago, it also served notice that years of financial tranquillity for city government may be over after last October’s stock market plunge.

The incident at the firehouse began on Super Bowl Sunday, when the Fire Department’s top chiefs ordered the firemen who were watching the game on television to travel without further instructions to another firehouse--a common emergency measure. The firefighters drove there with flashing lights and siren, but when they arrived they were unceremoniously told that their own quarters were being permanently closed. They were then taken back to the already-locked firehouse in a van and escorted in to pick up personal belongings and remaining equipment.

Opposition Feared

The tactics were designed to minimize opposition from firefighters and the community. In the past, some community activists have staged sit-ins at firehouses scheduled for elimination.

Officials of the Uniformed Firefighters Assn. called the tactics “sneaky,” and on Thursday served notice that their union’s support may not be forthcoming next year when Mayor Edward I. Koch is expected to seek a fourth term in office.

“Terminate Koch, not firehouses,” one sign at the demonstration proclaimed.

Police estimated that more than 4,000 of the department’s 9,200 firemen took part in the demonstration, and sympathetic policemen took no action when some firemen scrambled over barriers onto the bridge’s roadway. Lanes leading to Manhattan were closed to traffic while the firemen marched. Other motorists faced traffic jams on streets near the span.

Activists Block Traffic

In December and again last month, activists protesting alleged racism in New York City also succeeded in blocking traffic on the bridge, which over the years has provided a scenic and strategic pathway to City Hall in lower Manhattan.

At a Manhattan rally in a park at the end of the bridge and next to City Hall, Homer Bishop, the Fire Department’s chief of operations, was hanged in effigy. Firemen threatened to picket Bishop’s house, a tactic used by unions during the fiscal crisis of the 1970s.

Speaker after speaker--on a stage decorated with pictures of the mayor wearing red devil’s horns--berated Koch and Fire Commissioner Joseph Bruno not only for condoning the closing of Engine Company 232 but also for planning to shut another firehouse in the South Bronx. A menu of budget cuts proposed by the mayor calls for reducing the fire department’s budget by $2.4 million in the next fiscal year, a reflection of uncertainty about New York’s economy in the wake of the stock market decline.

“Shame on you, Mayor Koch” lectured Nicholas Mancuso, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Assn. as rank and file members of the department marched around City Hall chanting, “Koch must go.”

The mayor, however, was in Washington testifying before a Senate subcommittee on the environment. When he returned later in the day, he issued a statement critical of the union leadership.

Koch Issues Statement

“I have worked for 11 years to convey to cops and firefighters how supportive I am of them, and I think they know it,” Koch said. “For him (Mancuso) to try to get his way in the area of management--whether or not we keep a firehouse open--that’s not acceptable. It appears he’s trying to run the Fire Department, and that’s not his job.”

Bruno also defended the closing of the Brooklyn firehouse. The commissioner said the company’s workload had dropped by 50% since 1976. He said that another firehouse that opened last year made Engine Company 232 “redundant” and the department had planned to disband the company even before plans to cut the budget hastened the process.

Latest municipal statistics show total fire activity--structural and non-structural fires-- have declined to the lowest point in 22 years. But firemen have been responding to more non-fire emergencies and more false alarms.