Where Alarms Once Blared

East Harlem's former Engine Company 36, which once housed a banner from ground zero that read "We will never forget", is adorned with dull, cracked red paint, old newspaper clippings, and the painted words "No Fear" on one of the windows.

The building, located at 120 E. 125th St., remains empty more than three years after a commission established by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg decided to close eight fire stations across New York-a move that has drawn criticism from some local residents.

"Since the engine has closed, response time has increased by 30 seconds," said Woody Henderson, a member of the Committee to Save Engine 36. "It's put our community at a tremendous risk."

Bloomberg first proposed shutting down the stations in 2002, but the plan met with opposition and public safety concerns from the Harlem community. The outcry prompted the mayor to create the Fire Company Closing Review Commission in February 2003. After examining the cost-cutting plan, which supporters said would save the city $10.8 million per year, the commission voted five-to-two to close the stations.

"The Department does not believe that these reductions will endanger public safety," New York City Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said in a 2003 letter to Councilwoman Yvette D. Clarke.

"How do you subtract and do addition?" Henderson asked. He added that the mayor's assessments were a "misrepresentation of response time" because they were based on ladder trucks and not the engines that carry the actual water.

"The major concern was the burden of response time ... whether there would be sufficient firemen to respond," Inez Dickens, district nine council member, said. Before she was elected to the city council, Dickens was a member of an activist group that had opposed Bloomberg's proposed station cuts, but the group has since disbanded. "We lost the fight," she said.

The Department of Citywide Administrative Services took over management of the Company 36 station from the fire department in 2003. Engine 36, unlike some of the stations that were shut down in 2003, is not being auctioned off by the city.

Instead, the property will go through the city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure and "could be designated by the city for an economic development or housing initiative," according to Mark Daly, DCAS director of communications. "No decisions have been made on the future use of this property," Daly said. "If no other use for the property is found, it may be sold by DCAS." This would force the property to be put up for auction.

Meanwhile, Henderson says the committee will continue to lobby the city to bring back Engine 36. "We will be fighting this straight on up ... and try to keep it out of developers' hands," he said.