Day: June 5, 2025

In 1988, the year the Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps was founded, locals were regularly forced to wait for half an hour for an ambulance to arrive during a medical emergency. 

“Brooklyn in the 80s, it was the middle of the AIDS epidemic, the crack epidemic, and Bed-Stuy residents were not getting the services they needed,” said Amy Dorfman, a lieutenant at BSVAC. “On average, it took the city ambulance services over 30 minutes to respond to a life-threatening emergency in Bed-Stuy … they didn’t want to come and serve our neighborhoods.” 

More than three decades later, BSVAC has helped bring ambulance response times down to four minutes or less with an all-volunteer team and four ambulances.  

“People know BSVAC, we’ve been around for 37 years, so people when they see the ambulance, they’re surprised we’re still here, we’re still in existence, we still operate,” Dorfman said. “You know, we’ve touched a lot of lives over the years, so usually people are really happy to see us.” 

In the 80s, she explained Bed-Stuy was routinely neglected by emergency services — as were many communities of color. Founder James Robinson was moved to do something after his niece passed away waiting for an ambulance that arrived too late.

He started BSVAC alongside another EMS worker, Joe Perez, and a volunteer lawyer, Tasmin Wolf. 

At the time, the ambulance service was based out of an abandoned building, Dorfman said, with no running water or electricity. Volunteers responded to emergency calls on foot, or by bicycle – however they could get to the scene. 

Now, 37 years later, they’re hoping to add a fifth ambulance to the fleet this summer, Dorfman said, and have more than 100 volunteers who do everything from running operations to driving the ambulance and providing emergency medical care.

With the help of the city’s health department, BSVAC has expanded its territory to Crown Heights, Brownsville, and East New York. Sometimes, the org listens in on police scanners and heads to the scene of a medical emergency on their own. At other times, they’re looped in on the FDNY’s system, and are dispatched in lieu of a city ambulance. 

BSVAC also serves as standby medical help at community events and hosts CPR and first aid training classes in the neighborhood; and runs youth training programs so local children and teens can prepare for formal EMT training. So far this year, BSVAC has responded to more than 600 emergency calls; and 40 people have graduated from its Emergency Medical responder class. 

Every volunteer has a different story, Dorfman said. Many are full-time EMTs who want to support their local community on their off-hours. Others have 9-to-5 jobs totally unrelated to the medical field.

Dorfman herself works at a nonprofit, she said. During the COVID pandemic, she felt she needed a way to support her community and decided to go to EMT school and join up with BSVAC.

“I feel honored to be part of this community. We are a family,” she said, adding that Robinson’s son is now the commanding officer. “This really is a family organization, and I feel honored and lucky to be part of this community.” 

On July 12, BSVAC will celebrate its 37th anniversary with a block party at the corner of Greene Avenue and Marcus Garvey Boulevard. There will be games, food, music, a bounce house, and free health screenings — and a 1 p.m. ceremony to honor volunteer first responders.

A 43-year-old construction worker died from injuries he sustained in a partial roof collapse in Marine Park on Thursday.

Workers were conducting repairs and installing a new refrigeration unit on the first floor of a closed steakhouse at 3223 Quentin Road just before 9 a.m. when the roof caved in, officials said.

Emergency responders arrived on the scene within four minutes, said FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief Joseph Duggan in a statement, and found the man trapped beneath a heavy slab of concrete in a rear addition to the restaurant. The man was unconscious and unresponsive, according to the NYPD. 

Firefighters from Engine Company 309 and Ladder Company 139 used the “jaws of life” and specialized airbags to lift the slab and a piece of heavy equipment Joseph said, but had to call in additional units from Rescue Company 2 and Squad Company 252 to stabilize the debris and rescue the man.

FDNY Rescue Medics, who are trained in confined space operations, treated the man on the scene before he was rushed to Brookdale University Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, police said. His identity is being withheld pending family notification.

The incident is under active investigation by the Department of Buildings, Office of Emergency Management, and OSHA, police said. There were two other workers in the building at the time of the collapse, both unharmed, according to the FDNY. 

City records show that the building — which used to be home to the now-closed T-Fusion Steakhouse — was cited for work without a permit in 2017, after DOB inspectors noted construction of two sheds at the back of the restaurant. 

There did not appear to be any active construction permits issued for 3223 Quentin Road at the time of the collapse. 

This is a breaking news story, and will be updated.