Two FDNY crews were dispatched to Commissioner Daniel Nigro’s Queens home in the aftermath of the blizzard — just to clear a patch of snow that was blocking his path to the street, The Post has learned.
At least eight firefighters made the run to Nigro’s private Whitestone residence at 8:49 a.m. Sunday and when they got there, he instructed them to shovel a 3-foot wall of snow between his walkway and the street, sources said.
During that time, the units from Engine Company 320 and Ladder Company 167 could not be dispatched on any emergency calls the morning after Winter Storm Jonas had dumped two feet of snow on the area, the sources added.
“If there was a fire around the corner from his house, those two companies couldn’t be assigned,” one source said.
Nigro first realized his path was blocked when his driver showed up on Sunday morning to take him to his post-storm briefings.
His walkway was clear, but plows had created a wall of snow between the path and 24th Avenue.
Nigro’s driver called the local fire companies for help, and they were deployed, an FDNY spokesman said.
The job was entered into the FDNY’s dispatch system as “ASSIST COMM NIGRO W/ SNOW REMOVAL.” It was input as “ADMINISTRATIVE ASSIGNMENT” — meaning the two firetrucks could not be sent on any emergency calls.
A source said Nigro, who makes $208,786 a year, was furious about the paper trail. But the FDNY spokesman denied that claim.
The FDNY later released a statement saying, “The firefighters . . . did not miss any calls and were available to respond to any serious incidents that might have occurred in the area — but did not — during the few minutes they helped [Nigro].”
According to the city’s website, the Conflict of Interest Law “prohibits a public servant from using or attempting to use his or her City position to obtain a private benefit for the public servant” — including “having your subordinates do free work for you that you would have to pay someone else to do.”
Sources said if Nigro was going to use city services, it should have been a job for the Sanitation Department.
His wife, Lynn, told The Post the firefighters offered to clear out the entire driveway while they were there, but he refused.
“My husband said, ‘No, because I don’t want The Post here and I don’t need any of this in the paper,’” she said.
Additional reporting by Reuven Fenton, Philip Messing and Chris Perez