A quarter of NYC firefighters are off-duty after de Blasio’s vaccine mandate

Nearly a third of New York City’s firefighters are off-duty as a result of de Blasio’s vaccine mandate, with 800 EMTs also refusing to take the shot along with 5,400 cops . 

As of Tuesday morning, 3,300 of the FDNY’s 11,000 firefighters were not working, including 1,000 who have taken unpaid leave as a result of the mandate and 2,300 who are on sick leave. In total, 2,530 are unvaccinated but it’s unclear how many among them have been given exemptions and are still allowed to work. 

Fire chiefs say the majority of those who are on sick leave are unvaccinated – a claim that was denied by the unions on Tuesday at a meeting where more than 40 firefighters showed up to protest the mandate and seek support. 

It slices a considerable chunk out of those who are responding to calls, forcing those who are working to pull up the slack in understaffed fire companies now riding four per engine in some parts of Manhattan, instead of the usual six. 

Overnight, there were two major fires in the city – one in Brooklyn and one in the Bronx. Four people were taken to the hospital but no one was killed. Firefighters say it’s only a matter of time before staffing becomes so bad that some calls will not be responded to in time.

There are still 5,400 unvaccinated NYPD cops and 794 unvaccinated EMTs – the staff equivalent to 400 ambulances. The majority of the unvaccinated cops are still on the streets because they have filed exemptions.  

Now, the emergency workers are in a stand-off with City Hall. Both sides blame the other for the worrying staff shortages that could threaten public safety.  

‘I feel betrayed. I worked the busiest year in EMS history in the pandemic last year – we had 7,000 calls on one day….this should be about choice. People’s livelihoods shouldn’t be put on the line. It’s freedom… this is America. 

‘It’s supposed to be, “you do what’s best for you,”‘ Shem Lafleur, an EMT who worked for the FDNY for 15 years before his final shift on Sunday night, told DailyMail.com on Tuesday. 

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‘I’m not anti-vax, eventually I’ll get one once I am comfortable with it but I am not going to be forced, pushed against the wall,’ he added. 

Around 40 unvaccinated firefighters showed up to an emergency resource department meeting set up by their union on Tuesday at a hotel in Manhattan. Some had been sent home from their fire stations the previous day after reporting for duty. 

Nico Galetovic, a firefighter out of Engine 70, told DailyMail.com at the meeting that he refused the vaccine because of his religious beliefs. 

‘It has to do with my religious beliefs. I don’t identify with any specific church… it’s written in the scriptures. 

‘Some bible verses reference it,’ he said. 

Lafleur, the EMT who is now out of work, said he will in all likelihood get vaccinated eventually but he does not yet feel comfortable because of how new the shots are. 

‘When I read up on the J&J shot, it scared me. 

‘There were a lot of issues pertaining to my medical history. I wanted to wait until the right time- when a new video game system comes up, people rush to buy it you have glitches, bugs, updates…. usually after about a year and a half, sometimes a bit more, they start to resolve these things. I gave myself about a 2.5 year span to get it. 

‘I am not against the vaccine – I never have been – I’m never going to ridicule anyone who took it or didn’t take it,’ he said. 

He said that even if one ambulance goes down (two EMTs) – wait times could increase by up to three or four minutes. 

‘Even if one ambulance was to go out of service everybody feels it… it is affecting the city. If a station has about 50 people, and three people call out, you feel the impact because somebody is going to have to work an extra 4,6,8 hours and if you need two people to man an ambulance. 

‘If just one unit in a station of eight goes down, everybody feels it.’ 

Right now, there are 794 unvaccinated EMTs which is the equivalent to 400 ambulances. The average response time for an ambulance in NYC is around 7 minutes for the most life threatening cases. 

Of the dozens of firefighters who attended the union meeting on Tuesday, the majority did not want to speak publicly for fear of being chastised once they get back to work. 

Andrew Ansbro, the President of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, said the fire department is ‘falling apart behind the scenes’ while bosses claim service is unaffected. 

NYC firefighters are being worked to their limits… saying we held it together yesterday is irrelevant. It’s inhumane. It’s falling apart behind the scenes and they refuse to admit it. 

‘I pray it doesn’t cost the life of NYC citizens of firefighters. 60 companies were closed yesterday. 

‘There’s well over 1,000 firefighters that are placed on leave. Bring them back.’ 

One firefighter at Engine 65 on West 43rd Street in Manhattan disclosed that they were riding with only four firefighters in an engine – the legal minimum – when normally they would have up to double that number. 

‘It’s been a rough week,’ one firefighter at the station said on Tuesday morning.  

City Hall and the FDNY won’t confirm exactly how many people the force is down but the union said on Monday they expected it 1,700 firefighters going on unpaid leave. 

Another firefighter out of Engine 79 in the Bronx said staffing had been reduced ‘dramatically’.  

‘We were already understaffed. One month ago we had record highs in OT that the FDNY increased the maximum hours you can work.

‘Now, being forced to work even more than contractually required to work. 

‘Even 24 hour restrictions went by the wayside,’ one firefighter in the Bronx told DailyMail.com. 

‘I can’t fathom how the City could gamble with lives so carelessly when vaccination levels are now at levels initially promoted by prominent healthcare officials to achieve herd immunity (and that isn’t even accounting for the prior exposure and antibody levels in unvaccinated firefighters),’ he said. 

Edward Kelly, President of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said: ‘Firefighters are beat up. 

‘They’re working non-stop. They’re not being allowed to go home. People are going to break down.

‘We’re worried about tragedy happening in New York City. 

‘It could be a citizen, it could be one of our own. But we want everyone to know it’s not us creating this.’ 

They want to bring back the option for firefighters to either be vaccinated or have to test weekly for COVID.  

A four-alarm fire tore through a Chinese restaurant in the Bronx overnight, requiring 163 firefighters to respond from nearby companies including one that was so understaffed as a result of the vaccine mandate that it had to close. 

A two-alarm fire in Brooklyn required 100 firefighters’ attention at 6pm last night. Four people were taken to the hospital with injuries.   

An FDNY spokesman told DailyMail.com that no one died and no one was seriously injured. 

The unions on Tuesday slammed the claim that 2,300  firefighters were lying to claim sick pay when they were unvaccinated, calling it offensive to 9/11 survivors and others who suffer real injuries in the line of fire. 

‘We have firefighters that put their lives on the line that are battling cancers, some WTC-related. 

‘We also have some operating at a fourth alarm fire in the Bronx. 

‘We have a very dangerous job, firefighters get hurt in the line of duty… the assertion that thousands are faking medical leave, we reject,’ Ansbro, President of the UFA, said.