Megafires in ZIP code 10463

My husband/coworker and I have spent about half a century in research on the causes and consequences of the 1970s decimation of fire companies which led to the famous fire epidemic. We are preparing a paper for submission to a fire science journal: “Fire Company Availability Crisis: the Bronx” and want to alert the residents and workers of the perilous situation of ZIP code 10463, Kingsbridge, where we ourselves live. The situation of Norwood, ZIP code 10467, is also problematic.

A megafire in our paper is one to which 30 or more fire companies were assigned, a fire that destroys many homes or stores like the December 2023 fire on West 231st Street and Godwin Terrace that leveled five stores. ZIP code 10463 and ZIP code 10467 abut ZIP code 10468, the northernmost ZIP code in a cluster of five with extremely high density of megafires, a cluster forming an epicenter in a growing fire epidemic.

ZIP code 10463 had zero mega-fires from 2005 to 2007 and five years of zero megafires in the ten years from 2005-2014. During the succeeding 10 years, 2015 to 2024, ZIP code 10463 had no years of zero megafires: five years of one, four years of two and one year of three.

The rising number of megafires in the Bronx and in most of its ZIP code areas depends on the rising number of inadequate initial assignments of fire companies to structural fire alarms. A standard alarm assignment is three engines,two ladders and a battalion chief. We found an astonishing rise in the number of structural fires to which fewer than three fire units were assigned, especially in the 2015 to 2024 decade. This rise, in turn, depends on the extreme rise in medical emergencies to which fire companies are sent. This is the heart of the fire company availability crisis: too few companies, a 1975 destaffing of the remaining companies and a 1996 mandate to respond to medical emergencies because there aren’t enough ambulances. With an inadequate initial response, a fire grows and demands ever more fire companies to control it.

Fire Department of New York spokespersons always reassure the public after one of these megafires: “We got there in under four minutes.” They’re talking about the first arriving engine. They are not talking about how soon an adequate number of units arrive to control the fire or how the taking of one firefighter off every company has hampered adequacy of response.

The store fires also reflect inadequate building codes. The free-standing stores don’t have sprinklers or fire-resistant walls between stores. When the six stores on Bailey Avenue burned in 2021, one would think that our Dinowitzes would look into why this happened. Dinowitz pere is the chair of the assembly’s committee on codes. New York State has a building code that should be examined. Dinowitz fils is the co-chair of the Bronx delegation to the New York City Council. Fires that destroy a whole row of stores have been occurring all over the Bronx  and in the other central boroughs.

ZIP code areas 10463 and 10467 desperately need better leadership on these issues. Privately, my husband and I have named the vacant lot on West 231st Street and Godwin “Dinowitz Canyon.” After that fire, the elected officials ran around getting help to the affected store owners but no one paid any attention to preventing more such disasters. They all posed as heroes but neglected to use their power to keep the people and businesses of ZIP code 10463 safe in the future.

Deborah Wallace is a semi-retired natural and human ecologist living in Kingsbridge and studied the short- and long-term consequences of the 1970’s closing of fire companies for half a century.