FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com JANUARY 9, 2014 • THE QUEENS COURIER 25 HALL OF SHAME Building next to Woodside LIRR / No. 7 train station BY KATELYN DI SALVO How do you think Mayor de Blasio He did an excellent job; the snow was moved from the streets right away. Anthony Palermo This was his fi rst real test as mayor and I feel that he succeeded. I did not notice any major problems in my neighborhood, so I feel he did a good job in cleaning up the snow. Ayda Zuniga Around here everything was cleared out and I feel de Blasio handled it more effectively than Bloomberg had done in the past. Ethan Geffen I was surprised that schools were actually closed, but I love a snow day. I thought everything was cleaned up well the next day. Jennifer Fioranelli The new mayor did a good job with the snow; hopefully we will continue doing well in other areas as well. Rocco Manzolillo I think he did a good job cleaning up the snow. Daphne Dimitriadiou handled Hercules? oped street talk It seemed everything was adequately done. There were trucks cleaning up throughout the night and day. Goerge Nichols It seems he did fi ne. I noticed there were fewer streets that were unplowed. I’m not sure if that would mean giving the mayor credit or if he just has good people working for him, regardless it got done. Linda Gold STAY SAFE – AND WARM – THIS WINTER BY SALVATORE J. CASSANO More than a third of all serious fi res in New York City happen during the winter months, when people often resort to unsafe measures, as they attempt to heat their homes and stay warm. As a result, there are many preventable fi res resulting in unnecessary loss of life and property. Some fi res are caused by unattended open fl ames, such as decorative or commemorative candles, fi replaces or wood-burning stoves. They should never be left unattended and you should always extinguish them completely before going to bed at night. Other fi res are caused by electric heating equipment and the devices used in conjunction with them, like extension cords and power strips. Portable space heaters and electric blankets can be extremely dangerous if they are poorly maintained, inappropriately powered, or – in the case of space heaters – placed too close to combustible objects. You should not purchase these products, or any power strips or extension cords unless they are Underwriters’ Laboratory (UL) approved and have the UL mark. You should also periodically check the integrity of these products to ensure that they don’t become too worn or damaged for use. Most importantly, every home should have working smoke alarms and carbon-monoxide detectors. These devices save lives. We know this because in nearly 80 percent of the fi re deaths in recent years, the Fire Department found no working smoke alarm present. We have made education about the importance of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms a cornerstone of our Fire Safety Education (FSE) effort. Teams of Fire Safety Educators conduct hundreds of information sessions each year throughout the city, reaching about 600,000 New Yorkers every year, and at the same time they distribute hundreds of thousands of free smoke and carbon monoxide alarm batteries and tens of thousands of detectors. During the last year we’ve focused our fi re safety efforts on communities impacted by Sandy, because of the many problems associated with the storm in these areas. Dozens of serious fi res occurred both during and in the aftermath of the storm, as salt water impacted home electrical systems, and residents in these areas resorted to unconventional and even dangerous ways of heating and powering their homes. This winter, through the Hurricane Sandy Fire Safe Program, Fire Safety Educators have been reaching out to older New Yorkers in areas of Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island that were hit hardest by the storm, hosting educational events, visiting homes to conduct fi re safety reviews and discuss fi re safety exit plans, and installing smoke, carbon monoxide and hard-of-hearing alarms. The FDNY has done an extraordinary job in reducing the number of fatal fi res in New York City in the last decade – which has been overall the safest in nearly a century of recordkeeping. But, even one death by fi re is too many – so, our goal and commitment is to do everything possible to protect everyone from the danger of fi res and that starts with prevention. Please do your part in protecting yourself and your family by adhering to these basic winter fi re safety tips, which can be viewed in full at: on.nyc.gov/JhUFjt. Remember – working smoke detectors save lives! Please make sure you have them in your home! Salvatore J. Cassano is New York City’s 32nd Fire Commissioner. Incidents of graffi ti have risen. The Courier invites you, our readers, to submit photos of vandalism — or addresses where you see graffi ti — for our “Hall of Shame.” Conversely, if a home or business has “cleaned up their act,” submit them for induction into our “Hall of Fame.” Send all high resolution JPG images (300 DPI) to editorial@queenscourier.com with a location and a contact number. Otherwise, contact us at 38-15 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, NY 11361. Help us take our borough back from the vandals!
QC01092014
To see the actual publication please follow the link above