Thanks to the bravura work of the Fire Department, there were fewer fire fatalities in New York last year than there had been in nearly a century, when officials began to track the data.
There were only 58 deaths by fire in New York in 2012 — a tragic number, but the lowest toll since 1916.
And it’s got nothing to do with luck. The department credits its results in part to its distribution of 22,000 smoke detectors last year, as well as its sterling response times.
As The Post’s David Seifman reported, “ambulances got to life-threatening emergencies in an average six minutes, 30 seconds, another new low, despite a record 1.3 million calls.”
Even more astonishing is that all this good news came in a year when the city was devastated by Hurricane Sandy, which turned Breezy Point into an inferno. Yet no one died in the wildfire that engulfed the neighborhood, and countless lives were saved in the storm by the work of the city’s first responders.
“The historic achievements are a direct result of the dedication of the department’s No. 1 resource — our members,” said Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano at a ceremony Wednesday.
He’s exactly right.
These record numbers are a testament to the remarkable performance by the city’s remarkable firefighters.
They’ve earned New York’s thanks and honor. Keep up the good work.