Transcript: Mayor Adams Surveys Fire With FDNY, NYPD, NYCEM, and NYC Parks, Brief Media

November 8, 2024

Mayor Eric Adams: First of all, I really want to thank the men and women of the FDNY, NYPD, EMS, and everyone who responded, and the passerby who notified the Department of the fire. I never thought we'd be praying for rain, but we really need rain, with all of these leaves and the dry ground and trees, these brush fires, I think this is the third one today. 

I'm joined here by the team, Sue Donoghue, the commissioner of Parks, Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, the Fire Commissioner Tucker is here as well, OEM Commissioner Zach Iscol, has joined us as well. The full complement of the team is out here to coordinate, to make sure that, number one, this fire is under control, but the winds and the burning leaves makes it extremely challenging and difficult, but the over 100-plus men and women of the FDNY who are here to make sure this is under control. 

So I want to turn it over to the Fire Commissioner, so he can give you an update and give you all the basic information, but we were extremely lucky by the passerby who saw something, but also did something. They notified the FDNY, and it was a quick response. Commissioner? 

Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker: Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor, and thank you to the team for supporting the FDNY tonight at a second alarm, plus fire, here in Prospect Park. It will allow the chief to explain exactly what the Fire Department operation was, but at about 6:40 p.m. tonight, a passerby was walking through and notified 911 about a smoke condition. We received numerous calls thereafter, and as soon as our units got into the park, we began to trek up a hill here and extinguish what was a large fire. Chief Duggan?

Chief Joseph Duggan, Brooklyn Borough Commander, Fire Department: Good evening, everybody. My name is Joe Duggan, the Brooklyn Borough Commander, and tonight the citywide tour, duty chief. Tonight, we responded to approximately 6:46 to a brush fire in Prospect Park, approximately two acres in an area involved, the equivalent of about two football fields, an extremely inaccessible area to get our equipment and our folks into position, hilly, dense brush. The conditions today are perfect for brush fires with extremely dry vegetation, as well as heavy, gusty winds. We used approximately 120 firefighters to extinguish the blaze, and we will be here overnight with four engine companies to ensure that it doesn't re-ignite.

Commissioner Sue Donoghue, Department of Parks and Recreation: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, commissioner. I also want to thank the FDNY for their incredibly rapid response, and as the mayor said, the individual who called this in, Prospect Park is an incredible community resource, and our urban forest here especially is so, so critical. 

It is the oldest standing forest in Brooklyn, an incredible asset to the community, to the lungs of the city, so the care and rapid response was so critical here, and we are so pleased and appreciate that FDNY is going to be here through the night to make sure this fire is contained and make sure that our forest is safe. 

So thank you, FDNY. Thank you to the individual who called this in, and we appreciate everyone's focus on just knowing that we're dealing with difficult drought conditions. Please be aware. If you see something, say something. It's so important. Thank you.

Commissioner Zach Iscol, New York City Emergency Management: Hey, good evening, everybody. So first off, incredible work today by the fire department, and you know, the mayor always asks us, you know, what are you doing to work together as one city, and you're really seeing that out here today with the NYPD, FDNY, parks, members of the mayor's office, and other agencies who are out here today. 

I think this is just a really good reminder, an important reminder for all New Yorkers that we are under a drought watch right now, likely proceeding into a drought warning in the next couple of weeks. Being in a drought watch, that really means that we're in the preparatory phase, so one of the things that we're doing right now as a city is we're working together under the leadership of the mayor, Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, deputy mayor for Operations, preparing the city for ways that we can conserve water. The city consumes about a billion gallons of water every single day. 

We're doing a lot of things in the city to start reducing the amount of water that we use. We're asking New Yorkers to do the same. The other parts of the drought watch that we need to be concerned about is fire hazards. We've seen that in the city today. We've had about three to four brush fires. Woke up this morning, overnight, we had wildfires in New Jersey, creating some potential air quality issues that we've been monitoring throughout the day. 

So we're encouraging New Yorkers to, you know, don't throw cigarette butts on the ground, making sure that as the passerby did today, you're reporting any fires you see, you shouldn't be grilling in the parks, being aware of those things, conserving water, monitoring your air quality. 

This is the new normal of extreme weather. It's not something that we're expecting, but it's something that we all need to be prepared for. So look forward to and appreciate all New Yorkers doing their part. Thank you. 

Question: Thanks. I know a two-part question, actually. I'm wondering from the commissioner or chief if you know any indication of how this might have started? And then the second part is, how close were you to structures, any other, any kind of structures that might have been in danger as this thing got bigger and bigger?

Commissioner Tucker: So first of all, our fire marshals were on the scene very quickly, and they're on the scene now, and they'll be here overnight. Daylight will help us figure out the cause and origin of this fire, and we will certainly let you know that as soon as they know that. As for structures, this is an extremely dense part of Prospect Park. There are no structures up on this hill. It's about 50 meters high, and there was never a threat to any civilian structures. 

Question: Is the fire at a state risk today? 

Commissioner Tucker: The fire is under control. And there are some hotter spots. As the wind picks up, there might be a spark or something. But we're leaving fire companies here for the purposes of mitigating any small fires that might happen. It's very wet up there now. We've got a lot of water up there now. So we don't think that there's any threat to future fires tonight up there. 

Question: Yeah, so with climate change and, you know, things like this becoming the new norm, do you think that as a city we are prepared for more incidents like this as the fire weather warning continues until tomorrow? 

Commissioner Tucker: Yeah. The city is very prepared, as the mayor has demanded of us. We are all working very closely together. All of the city agencies, even in this dry period, there's absolutely no reason to think that we aren't anything other than extremely prepared.

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