Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta (center), FDNY Chief of Operations Patrick McNally (left), and FDNY Chief of Department Sal Cassano in March. (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
Scoppetta leaves the department with a good record. Fire deaths in the last eight years are the lowest on record and fire and EMS response times are the fastest on record. Last year had the fewest fires in the city in nearly 50 years.
“The indisputable fact is that today’s FDNY is—without question—better prepared, better trained, and better equipped than ever before,” wrote Scoppetta.
Scoppetta touted department improvements in training and equipment, including a new state-of-the-art emergency operations center to replace the inadequate center the city had on 9/11.
“Today, our $17 million facility is the envy of fire departments throughout the world,” he said.
In the aftermath of the Deutsche Bank fire in 2007 that took the lives of two firefighters, the fire department under Scoppetta re-engineered their field inspection system.
“We are working with IBM to create a $25 million integrated inspection data system that will combine various internal and external databases and transform our inspectional process to one that is risk-based, enhancing firefighter and public safety,” he said.
Scoppetta’s eight years have also seen him butt heads with the firefighters union on a regular basis.
"The Scoppetta years were not kind to the fire department," reads a statement from the Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York.
The union endorsed Comptroller Bill Thompson over Mayor Bloomberg, blaming him for closing six firehouses and proposing 16 additional permanent fire company closures after the election in January 2010.
“The Bloomberg administration has brought us a bloated, mismanaged fire department leadership that the mayor has not held accountable to the public it serves,” said Steve Cassidy, president of the union.
Before serving as fire commissioner for Bloomberg, Scoppetta was commissioner for the Administration for Children's Services in the Giuliani administration.
Commissioner Scoppetta was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, according to his biography from the city. When he was five years old he was placed in a children's shelter and lived in various foster care institutions until he turned 12. After serving two years in the Army, he attended Bradley University on the G.I. Bill.
In his retirement from public office, Scoppetta now intends to pursue teaching.
