Hudson Yards Will Stretch Firefighters, FDNY Union Chief Says

(Bloomberg) -- Hudson Yards office rents are on fire. New York firefighters want to make sure that’s all.

Developer Related Cos. says the 28-acre development on the edge of the Hudson River will draw about 40,000 office workers at tenants including BlackRock Inc., KKR & Co., Wells Fargo & Co. and WarnerMedia, plus 4,000 residents and hordes of tourists, gourmands, shoppers and patrons of the arts. Related Executive Vice President Webber Hudson said he expects 15 million to 22 million visitors per year.

All that traffic will stretch the resources of existing firehouses, slowing response times and putting civilians in danger, according to an advisory from the Uniformed Firefighters Association. Union president Gerard Fitzgerald is holding a March 14 press conference at Hudson Yards to call on the city to build a new firehouse to promote the "safety, health, and well-being of hundreds of thousands of residents, many businesses and millions of tourists, by funding a firehouse," the advisory said.

A representative from Related said the location of firehouses is a matter for the Fire Department of New York. The New York mayor’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“We are actively looking at sites on the west side for our current and future fire” and emergency management needs, said FDNY spokesman Francis Gribbon.

--With assistance from Lily Katz.

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Clark in New York at pclark55@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Debarati Roy at droy5@bloomberg.net, Rob Urban

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