{"id":245819,"date":"2026-05-28T00:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T00:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/245819\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T00:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T00:30:16","slug":"cm-ariola-welcomes-city-council-move-to-restore-funding-for-fifth-firefighters-at-86-engine-companies-across-nyc-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/245819\/","title":{"rendered":"CM Ariola welcomes City Council move to restore funding for fifth firefighters at 86 engine companies across NYC \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Council Member Joann Ariola<\/a> has welcomed reports that the City Council is pushing to allocate $91.7 million in the city budget to re-install fifth firefighters at 86 engine companies across New York City.<\/p>\n

The City Council is calling on the Mamdani administration to reverse a Bloomberg-era cut that dropped the fifth firefighter from all engine companies in the city. At present, only 20 of the nearly 200 engines in the city have a fifth firefighter after former Mayor Bill de Blasio reinstated the position at some companies across the five boroughs.<\/p>\n

The move aims to add a fifth firefighter to 86 crews across the city, which typically consist of four firefighters. Advocates for the measure argue that a fifth firefighter can accelerate the time it takes for the FDNY to respond to fire, particularly because extra manpower is critical for operating heavy hose lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fifth firefighter is a vital position that never should have been removed in the first place,\u201d Ariola said in a statement.\n<\/p>\n

Ariola, who serves as chair of the Council\u2019s Committee on Fire and Emergency Management, said the issue has been a \u201cpriority\u201d ever since she assumed the role in 2022. She said the Council\u2019s proposed measure would ensure that a fifth firefighter is presented at more than 100 of the engine companies across the city, which she said would be a \u201ccritical step\u201d toward reducing FDNY<\/a> response times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would be a critical step towards reducing the ever-growing FDNY response times across our city, and would save critical minutes in an emergency that will no doubt save lives,\u201d Ariola said. \u201cAnd not just that, but it will also help to alleviate the burdens placed on the other members of the engine. That will be one extra man to help stretch a hose line, so water can get on a fire faster, and it is one extra set of hands to perform the lifesaving tasks our heroes do day in and day out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Uniformed Firefighters Association also welcomed the move, stating that firefighters across the city are currently doing a \u201chistoric\u201d number of runs. In particular, the UFA and Ariola are calling on the city to add 40 fifth firefighters to engine companies in the Bronx, which is deemed the city\u2019s busiest borough in terms of fires.<\/p>\n

UFA Vice President Bobby Eustace said the move would have an \u201cimmediate impact on public safety,\u201d while UFA Queens Trustee Dennis Tveter said the measure would have a \u201ctremendous impact\u201d across the city, particularly in Queens where station houses cover vast regions.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery often, we see Queens engines pulled away to help cover fires up in the Bronx, leaving some of our areas at risk,\u201d Tveter said in a statement. \u201cHaving fifth men in companies up there would relieve that issue, and allow our rigs to remain in the borough they are meant to serve, and having fifth men in more Queens companies would help us handle our own fires even more effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

The City Council\u2019s move to re-install the fifth firefighter represents the latest push that lawmakers have made to reverse the Bloomberg-era cuts.\n<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani did not include funds for the measure when he introduced a $124.7 billion executive budget earlier in May. Negotiations between Mamdani and the Council began this week ahead of the June 30 deadline.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Mayor said the administration \u201clooks forward to continuing conversations with the Council regarding a fifth firefighter pilot proposal.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Council Speaker Julie Menin, meanwhile, said in a statement that adding a fifth firefighter would reduce the time required to put out fires, protecting civilian lives in the process.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hard-working firefighters deserve more resources, which is why this initiative is one of the top priorities for the City Council as we work to finalize a Fiscal 2027 budget that uplifts and protects all New Yorkers,\u201d Menin said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Council Member Joann Ariola has welcomed reports that the City Council is pushing to allocate $91.7 million in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[64436,301,66737,194,96047,14496,22925,9,24,63,134,136,135,96048],"class_list":["post-245819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-budget-negotiations","tag-city-council","tag-executive-budget","tag-fdny","tag-fifth-firefighter","tag-joann-ariola","tag-mayor-zohran-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-ufa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}