DEMOTIONS SOUND ALARM
Trumoil after FDNY shake-up in brass
The FDNY hierarchy is going down in flames.
Three high-ranking Fire Department chiefs were abruptly demoted in a controversial shake-up last week — and two other chiefs voluntarily stepped down from their titles in solidarity, law-enforcement sources told The Post on Monday.
And other protesting chiefs may soon follow suit, sources warned.
Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh knocked down in rank Assistant Chief of Fire Prevention Joe Jardin, Deputy Assistant Chief of Operations Michael Gala and Deputy Chief of Department Fred Schaaf on Friday, sources said.
The move immediately sparked outcry from rank-and-file Bravest and prompted Chief of Department John Hodgens and Chief of Operations John Esposito to seek demotions, furious at least partly because they were left in the dark by Kavanagh over their colleagues — which stunned the commissioner, sources said.
“This puts the department in turmoil,” an FDNY source said. “Who will make day-to-day decisions?
“She will also have a hard time replacing them,” the source said. “Firemen are a tight group. No one will want to take their job, and if someone is dumb enough to take the job, good luck getting people to work for them.”
New chiefs haven’t been named.
The demotions were announced after a meeting Friday about “working together,” a source said.
Kavanagh read a statement to the 20 or so top department chiefs gathered, suggesting she was highly dissatisfied with department leadership in recent weeks.
“Over the last eight weeks, since we’ve made some changes, many requests have made it to my office,” she said. “Requests for vehicles, requests for promotions, requests for something that served the bottom line of a single person here in the room.
“What has not come to my desk is a plan to make our members safer,” Kavanagh fumed. “What has not come to my desk is a plan to reduce fire deaths in The Bronx, which are spiking . . . . Not a single idea of what would help the membership and the citizens of New York has made it to my desk.”
FDNY spokesman Frank Dwyer said Monday, “We do not comment on personnel moves.”