Engine 27 was disbanded November 22, 1975 during a period of financial crisis for NYC - the 1970s - even though the FDNY War Years work load was continuing to increase and neighborhoods were being incinerated.
History - Companies disbanded in the 1970s:
1970: M 7, M 8
1971: M 4,
1972: E 2, E 31, E 32, E 208, E 215, E 267, E 88-2, L 27-2, E 217-2, Sq 6
1974: E 13, E 203, E 256, E 272, E 50-2, E 91-2, L 26-2, L 103-2, Bn 5
1975: E 27, E 154, E 167, E 205, E 212, E 218, E 232, E 269, E 306, L 8, L 171, Bn 29, Bn 60, Dv 16, Dv 17
1976: M 5
- Some companies were re-organized, most were not.
FDNY Statistics - 1960 to 2015:
Year Uniform Force Fires Emergs MFA's Total Alarms Serious Fires Civilian Deaths
1960 11,766 60,941 16,868 16,326 94,135 1,630 207
1961 11,578 61,644 17,509 18,530 97,683 1,696 166
1962 12,301 69,991 18,719 20,279 108,989 2,064 153
1963 12,817 74,680 20,836 21,961 117,477 1,912 175
1964 12,953 79,477 22,173 26,759 128,409 1,606 180
1965 13,288 85,592 24,305 32,814 142,711 1,905 196
1966 13,231 90,290 27,084 37,414 154,788 2,135 243
1967 13,059 91,161 33,231 48,106 172,498 2,275 218
1968 13,764 127,826 39,249 60,945 228,020 3,156 302
1969 14,031 126,204 41,054 72,060 239,318 3,312 307
1970 14,325 127,249 45,999 89,432 263,659 3,508 310
1971 13,896 125,306 49,543 104,958 279,807 3,573 292
1972 13,558 118,297 49,610 106,878 274,785 3,410 270 RAND Study, Firehouse closures
1973 13,394 129,106 55,247 115,802 300,155 3,261 295 FDNY strike
1974 13,091 130,324 59,733 164,401 353,458 3,852 273 Firehouse closures, FDNY layoffs
1975 11,548 137,478 59,478 203,851 400,096 4,307 245 Firehouse closures, 40K NYC lay offs
1976 10,662 153,263 64,524 207,227 425,014 4,880 289 Closures
1977 11,271 129,619 66,950 262,998 459,567 4,640 290
1978 10,979 210,792 66,323 285,290 472,405 3,445 272
1979 11,466 114,370 72,243 162,529 349,142 3,095 244
1980 11,252 127,876 76,327 185,500 389,703 3,303 289
1981 11,720 122,261 75,653 164,118 362,032 3,090 246
1982 11,990 111,799 77,132 152,147 341,078 2,782 248
1983 11,908 96,276 76,772 139,083 312,131 2,320 228
1984 12,096 94,329 78,769 142,224 315,322 2,148 206
1985 12,080 97,454 81,553 132,522 311,529 2,240 213
1986 12,202 94,157 81,848 128,793 304,798 2,126 206
1987 11,943 89,751 93,557 140,957 324,205 2,134 245
1988 11,433 105,229 99,175 139,408 343,812 2,775 229
1989 10,630 95,126 114,168 136,862 346,156 3,187 246
1975 NYC Financial Crisis:
"New Yorkers continue to debate what drove the city to the brink of bankruptcy in 1975. Some argue that New York City?s liberal officials borrowed money freely to spend on social programs, while powerful municipal unions forced them to agree to obscenely generous contracts. Others say that a variety of outside factors were a driving factor -- the city was increasingly tied into a world economy that was in shock from the 1973 Arab oil embargo; it was victimized by the banks upon which it relied to buy bonds; the federal government left the city in the lurch...
"The banks had lent too much and checked too little; the unions took more than the city could afford; the city cooked the books, and borrowed; and the state encouraged this whole exercise,"...
Whether or not they were the root cause of the crisis, New York City?s financial practices were out of control at that time, say experts. The city was relying excessively on debt; ... its short-term debt had risen from about zero in 1970 to $6 billion in 1975. The city relied increasingly on budgetary tricks to balance the budget?- reclassifying operating expenses as capital investments; continuously pushing expenditures onto the following year?s budget; or simply not keeping good enough records to know what was really going on.
... "The Streets Were Paved With Gold"- one of numerous books written on the topic -... the city acted as if it wasn?t bleeding to death when in fact it was hemorrhaging severely. But when first the banks, and then the federal government, declined to bail the city out (the latter prompting one of the most famous tabloid headlines in New York history: "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD"), it became apparent that something needed to be done.
The answer ... was ?fiscal martial law.?" - http://www.gothamgazette.com/economy/3016-the-fiscal-crisis-after-30-years
Results: In November 1975 Mayor Abraham Beame presented a deep cut of another $200 million from the NYC budget to the Emergency Financial Control Board, which had taken control of the city's finances. 40,000 NYC employees were laid off. NYPD and FDNY had massive layoffs and firehouses were closed. Sanitation workers conducted crippling garbage-collection strike. Cuts were desperate measures to keep New York City fiscally afloat after inept mayors and poor leadership destroyed BYC financial solvency.
Rand Study:
Computer experts of the RAND Institute were hired by the administration of Mayor John V. Lindsay to make FDNY more efficient. The RAND Study, based primarily on theoretical response times, were used to justify deep FDNY cuts and firehouse closures.
Engine 27, and many other FDNY companies, were eliminated when their services might have saved lives and neighborhoods.
Gone but not forgotten.