The Fires
Joe Flood recounts the RAND corporation’s partnership with the New York City Fire Department during the 1970s and the company’s computer model that assured… read more
Joe Flood recounts the RAND corporation’s partnership with the New York City Fire Department during the 1970s and the company’s computer model that assured efficient use of public money and services. The author recalls that this model led to the withdrawal of fire protection from several of the city’s poorer neighborhoods and contends that this oversight was responsible for a great number of fires that arose in the South Bronx,. Brooklyn, Lower East Side, and Harlem. The decade was deemed “The War Years” by the FDNY and the fires led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of residents and the deaths of 2,000 people. Joe Flood presented his book and a slide show at he Harvard Coop in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He responded to questions from members of the audience. close