NEW YORK (AP/ 1010 WINS) -- A fire union says a Brooklyn engine company had to close its firehouse for 30 minutes to go bathe a circus elephant, on city orders.
The Uniformed Firefighters Association says Engine 245 did not want to partake in the photo opportunity with Suzie, a circus elephant for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey.
But the union says city officials ordered the engine company to participate. The firehouse shut down for 30 minutes on Wednesday while four firefighters and an officer went to scrub Suzie at the press event.
"What they did compromised that community; fortunately no one was hurt," President of the Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York, Steve Cassidy, said. "Whoever at city hall decided to do this doesn't understand public safety and doesn't understand the role that firefighters play in public safety."
Ringling Bros. recently opened a circus show in Coney Island.
The Fire Department says firefighters were only supposed to spray the animal when it walked by the firehouse, and were not ordered to close down, by either City Hall or the department. The department says closing the firehouse was a mistake.
The department says there were no calls to the engine company during the half hour that it was out of service.
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