Rally To Save Fire Co. Unites the Heights

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

by Raanan Geberer, published online 05-26-2011

Buscemi, Markowitz Speak at Firehouse

By Raanan Geberer
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Elementary school kids, college students, teachers, civic leaders, local businessmen, elected officials and retired and active firefighters — they all came out yesterday afternoon for a rally to save Engine Co. 205 on Middagh Street.

Engine Co. 205, which shares a circa-1929 firehouse with Ladder Co. 118, is one of 20 firehouses around the city, and eight in Brooklyn, that has been targeted for closure by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Many of those at the rally were connected with the other firehouses that have been targeted — for example, four off-duty firefighters from Engine Co. 220. Some of the elected officials, like Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Borough President Marty Markowitz, have appeared at multiple rallies at different firehouses, but have given the same message at all of them.

Some of the speakers made reference to the fight eight years ago that closed several other Brooklyn firehouses, most notably Engine Co. 212 in Williamsburg and Engine Co. 204 in Cobble Hill.

Assemblywoman Joan Millman remembered how she, de Blasio, actor Steve Buscemi and several others were arrested after a sit-in at the Cobble Hill firehouse. “We’re ready to do it again,” she said.

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