Nicholas Vrettos: Douchebag Firefighter

Posted by: Tristan

When budget cuts meant that his station would close overnight, Nicholas Vrettos leapt into action.  Unfortunately, that action was calling in false claims that there was a fire in a nearby school cafeteria.

Fire officials said that on Dec. 4, about 11:30 a.m., a fire was reported — but not found — in the cafeteria of Public School 175 on City Island Avenue. The 911 call followed an announcement by Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta that Ladder Company 53 on City Island, where Firefighter Vrettos worked, was one of four firehouses that would be partly closed at night, fire officials said.

The Department of Investigation, which was notified by the Fire Department that a firefighter was implicated in the false alarms, traced the 911 call to a City Island auto body shop that Firefighter Vrettos operates.

Apparently, this is not the correct action to voice a grievance against FDNY policy.

“Calling in a false alarm to 911 is not the way to protest a budget cut that prompted a partial closure,” Rose Gill Hearn, commissioner of the Department of Investigation, said in a statement released on Thursday. “The timing of the calls suggests a deliberate attempt to tax the Fire Department’s ability to respond.”

The timing of the calls was suspicious.

Nicholas Vrettos, 30, a six-year veteran of Ladder 53, made about a dozen false reports of fires on City Island, sources said.

All came within a 45-minute span on Dec. 4, the day FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta announced $9 million in cutbacks.

One is forced to wonder why making false alarms would do much to support Vrettos’s efforts to keep his station open…and why he would make the calls from a location which could be traced back to him.

Vrettos earns $85,000 a year, which he’s going to need, considering that his union won’t provide a lawyer for him.

A firefighters’ union spokesman said that because Firefighter Vrettos was not on duty at the time of the call, he would not be represented by a union lawyer.

Of course, Vrettos is, in a way, rather selfless.  For being a douchebag, this firefighter will be fired and help the FDNY deal with its budget woes.