Locals Rally to Keep Engine 220 Open

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced plans one of only two firehouse in Park Slope – but locals surely won’t let this one close without a fight.

At least 242 Slope residents have already fired off letters to Bloomberg via Councilmember Brad Lander’s website, after the Mayor’s announcement that he plans to shutter Park Slope’s Engine 220 on 11th Street, along with seven other Brooklyn fire department companies, in order to cut costs.

Closing the station, which also serves Windsor Terrace, will delay emergency response times in the neighborhood – and when responding to emergencies, sometimes delays of mere seconds can have drastic consequences.

According to City Council statistics, if the 11th Street station is closed, the first arrival time would jump from 3:38 to 4:08 seconds (a 19 percent increase), and the second arrival would go from 4:08 to 5:24 (a 30 percent increase).

Councilmember Brad Lander said in a statement that the proposed closure of Engine 220 show “Mayor Bloomberg has his priorities in all the wrong places.”

 “This fire company keeps my family, and me, and much of Park Slope safe,” Lander said.  “If the Bloomberg Administration is allowed to proceed with this closure, arrival times at fires will increase dramatically in our neighborhood."

Upon hearing news of the possible closure on Wednesday evening, resident expressed .

“I’ve had two incidents where this fire station has come to my house. One was a kitchen incident, and another was an alarm going off,” said Rhonda Sherman, who lives on Sixth Street, five blocks from Engine 220. 

“Every neighborhood should have a local fire station," she said.