Cat Fight!

ACCORDING TO THE mayor and most every news outlet in town, Sunday's terror drill at the Bowling Green subway station went splendidly, with the NYPD, FDNY and various other emergency response teams all working together like a well-oiled machine. It was all smiles and teamwork, each individual knowing his duty, the 1000-plus emergency workers striving together toward a single goal.

According to the Post, however, it wasn't quite that pretty; it was business as usual. Citing a single unnamed source, the story claims that when a firefighter attempted to enter the subway station, a cop-believing that only members of the bomb squad were allowed in the station at the time, grabbed the firefighter and threw him to the ground.

Yes, it seems that old NYPD-FDNY grudge match is still playing out. Whether it's on the "hallowed ground" of the WTC site, trying to rescue someone in the Hudson or preparing for a disaster in the subway, you put some firemen and cops in the same vicinity, regardless of what they're supposed to be doing, and the fur's going to fly.

Perhaps the most telling scene in the Post's account came when other firefighters, in an effort to calm down the two men, reminded the cop "that the exercise was only a drill, not a real emergency."

In other words, "We have to play nice during this practice run because we're being watched-but when the shit hits the fan for real, it's gonna be a free-for-all."