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November 13, 2005

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In a series beginning Sunday, Newsday presents the most complete picture of the Long Island volunteer fire service ever assembled. The reporting process included interviews with hundreds of people inside the 179 LI fire agencies, and the examination of thousands of documents and statistics.

Two consultants who were hired to examine the series' methodology pronounced it to be sound. Since there is no higher level of government that tracks the agencies' performance, nor even agreed-upon standards for keeping those statistics, however, some data have limitations. For instance, variations in the way calls are processed and how records are kept can affect the accuracy of the published response times to a small degree, and there is no statistically accurate method for adjusting for the variations.