Firefighters protest Bloomberg cuts

Several thousand city firefighters -- some pushing baby strollers -- walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall on Friday to protest Mayor Michael Bloomberg's budget cuts that would shut 20 fire companies.

"This is not about job cuts -- it's about safety," said Kirk DeGroot of Carle Place, who brought his 8-month-old son, Dean, and his 2-year-old daughter, Isabel, to the rally.

The marching FDNY firefighters held signs that read: "Recall Bloomberg" and waved pictures of Bloomberg as the Grand Viper holding a staff, and other poster pictures of members rescuing a baby hanging from a window in a burning building.

The firefighters' rally crowded five city blocks along Broadway from Barclay to Chambers streets. Dozens of city and state elected officials spoke at the rally promising their support and vowing to reject the mayor's FDNY budget cut.

"The City Council will save the 20 companies and keep them open," shouted Manhattan Councilman Robert Jackson, who was one of several speakers. "We expect the FDNY to be there right away when we need them, and we will be there for you."

Elected officials and union leaders accused Bloomberg of dismissing the public safety risk to neighborhoods that will see their firehouses shrink to one truck. But city hall defended the mayor.

"We heard a lot of the same comments when six fire companies were closed in 2003 -- claims that people would die," said Marc LaVorgna, the mayor's spokesman, after the rally. "But since those six companies were closed we've hit all-time record lows in fire deaths."

The mayor's proposal would save the city $55 million, according to city hall officials. But detractors said you can't put a price on safety.

"Seconds are seconds when people are hanging out of windows. The mayor is rolling the dice here and eventually it will be a crapshoot," said DeGroot, 34, of Engine Company 314 in Rosedale, Queens."Did we not learn anything from 9/11," shouted Queens Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley. "We are the number one terrorist target in the world. This is not a game. This is about people's lives." Can trim the rest for space...

One firefighter, whose Engine Company 49 in the Bronx is on the list to be shut, said his firehouse would no longer have a truck with a hose and will have to rely on a nearby firehouse.

"What happens if they are out? Do we go to a fire without a fire hose?" he said, shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders.to here.