The City Council is pushing to add a fifth firefighter to dozens of more trucks — in what lawmakers argue will lead to fast-moving blazes being extinguished much quicker, The Post has learned.
The legislative body wants the Mamdani administration to allocate an additional $91.7 million to add the extra staff at 86 engine companies in the busiest and deadliest of areas, renewing a years-long fight to restore funding for the “fifth man.”
The ask is the first as budget negotiations kick off this week, as lawmakers and Mayor Zohran Mamdani work to hammer out a budget by the end of June.
“Adding a fifth firefighter to FDNY engine companies would reduce the time required to put out fires — protecting the lives of civilians and firefighters alike,” Council Speaker Julie Menin (D-Manhattan) said.
“Our hard-working firefighters deserve more resources, which is why this initiative is one of the top priorities for the City Council as we work to finalize a Fiscal 2027 budget that uplifts and protects all New Yorkers.”
Leading the push on the council is Bronx lawmaker Kevin Riley, who told The Post Monday the additional staffing is critical for the FDNY as the department deals with the fast-moving fires sparked by lithium-ion batteries.
“What the council is asking for with a fifth fireman will really help,” he said. “It will help them move faster, especially with fires that come with lithium battery fires.
“We’ve been having good conversations with City Hall,” Riley added optimistically.
Currently, only 20 of the nearly 200 engines have a “fifth man.”
Mamdani’s eye-popping $124.7 billion executive budget, which he rolled out earlier in May, did not include those funds.
The fifth fireman was cut back in 2011 under then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, when response times were at nearly a third of what they are currently.
Lawmakers have made repeated pushes to fully reinstate the added personnel over the years.
In 2019, there was a bipartisan push from Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) and then-Councilman Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn), who tried to pressure ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio to expand the program to the entire department.
“Having a fifth firefighter staffed on an engine company drastically improves the effectiveness of that engine company, thus the permanent staffing of a fifth firefighter on all engine companies throughout the City would decrease the time it takes to put out fires, decrease deaths and injuries due to fires, and reduce overall costs of medical leave and fire damage,” the lawmakers wrote.
Former Mayor Eric Adams faced heat during his tenure for eliminating the 20 staffers from engines before later restoring the budget cuts.
