FDNY union president calls for more funding under new commissioner

NEW YORK, N.Y. (PIX11) — The president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association is standing behind newly appointed FDNY commissioner Robert Tucker .

During an interview with PIX11 Morning News on Tuesday, FDNY Union President Andrew Ansbro says the new commissioner comes at a time when the fire department is low on resources and their reactionary time is declining as a result.

“The top priority of the FDNY should be the top priority of the commissioner and that is to protect the lives and property of the citizens of the City of New York,” Ansbro said. “…It’s imperative that he work with the city and the city council to bring more staffing and more rigs, more companies open to the fire department.”

EMS response time is down by one minute compared to five years ago and is leading to a 7% increase in loss of life, according to Ansbro. As a result, he says he plans to talk with Commissioner Tucker about how to get more engines on the road to help change the response rate.

“The runs keep coming and the population of the city has gone up two and a half million since they started cutting the FDNY and you can’t get the same results with less people and less rigs,” he said.

Tucker was sworn in as the new FDNY commissioner on Monday following Laura Kavanaugh’s resignation after less than two years in the role. He was most recently the chair and CEO of a cybersecurity tech company.

Dominique Jack is a digital content producer from Brooklyn with more than five years of experience covering news. She joined PIX11 in 2024. More of her work can be found here .

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