The number of people who died in fires decreased last year in New York City to 48 — the lowest since the Fire Department started keeping records 100 years ago.
Mayor de Blasio and FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro announced the dip in fatalities Monday at a Canal Street firehouse and credited a department-wide reduction in response times as a key reason for the milestone.
In 2015, 59 people perished in fires. The most fire deaths were recorded in 1970, when 310 residents died.
“We were losing almost a person a day,” Nigro said of the 1970s, which firefighters still refer to as the War Years. “Now, we’re losing fewer than one person every week.”
Nigro noted that 30 of the 48 people who died in 2016 did not have a functional smoke alarm.