Thanks to a threat by the “Black Guerilla Family” against a precinct house next door to a fire station, the New York City Fire Department has temporarily abandoned the facility, leaving residents of the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood less protected from blazes for Christmas. The New York Post reports:

New York’s Bravest deserted the city’s Finest on Wednesday — abandoning a Brooklyn firehouse next-door to a police station that’s the target of a threat involving the notorious “Black Guerilla Family” gang.

A fire truck and about 25 firefighters assigned to Engine Co. 222 moved out of its headquarters adjacent to the NYPD’s 81st Precinct building in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the FDNY confirmed.

“There are no threats against the fire department,” FDNY spokesman Jim Long said. “It’s just that that precinct and fire house are adjacent to each other. We’re just doing this out of an abundance of caution.

“We’ve relocated the engine to a neighboring fire house. We’re giving the police department the chance to mitigate the issue,” he added.

I have the utmost respect for the FDNY, whose members charged into the World Trade Center, facing certain death, in order to rescue others. That bravery will be remembered as long as there is a free America. But this decision rankles. True enough, armed battle is not the modus operandi of firefighters, and maybe the delay in reaching fires will be minimal. But I detest the notion of surrender to thuggery. Of course, I do not bear responsibility for the safety of the men and women of the FDNY, who have other fish to fry than combatting gangs. And perhaps the de Blasio administration would not back a plan to protect the firehouse, and the FDNY leadership did what it had to.