Subject:     Final Report Fire Safety Task Force
Date:         Tue, 19 Jun 2001 10:39:16 EDT
From:        NFSAJAV@aol.com
To:            members@council.nyc.ny.us

On March 24, 1999 the mayor signed into law fire sprinkler legislation for new residential buildings. Archie Spigner and Walter L. McCaffrey were present. I testified at the request of the New York City Fire Department and asked the Mayor to convene a Blue Ribbon Task force to study the need for fire sprinklers in existing buildings. He did so and asked that a report be issued in sixty days. Meetings were held, hundreds of hours were spent doing the work for various committees and to this day a final report has not been issued. Letters have been sent to the Mayor and City Commissioners requesting a status report and none have been answered. Now three more fire fighters have paid with their lives because another building was not protected with fire sprinklers. Since the tragic fire in Brooklyn in December of 1998 more than 250 New Yorkers have died in fires. The issue has never been the value of sprinklers and their ability to save lives and protect property but the cost of installing them. The New York City Council MUST address this issue before another fire tragedy occurs.

Creative legislation such as matching funds and/or low interest rate loans should become a priority of the Council. In two years six firefighters and 250 New Yorkers have paid the highest price for living and trying to fight fires in unsprinklered buildings..they paid with their lives. Please act today before another fire tragedy occurs tomorrow.

John A. Viniello, President
National Fire Sprinkler Association