Fire Critic An Unadulterated View of the Fire Service
I just read an article about people questioning a 9 minute response time. Apparently, numerous other apparatus were responding to other 911 calls and the house fire response in question got apparatus from a further fire station than the first or second due.
It is unfortunate. It is also becoming more and more prevalent.
Whether it be increased call levels, apparatus taken out of service, decreased staffing, brownouts, or fire station closures response times are suffering.
From the report:
The city has five fire stations that house a variety of equipment, from engines to ambulances, but stations are not staffed with enough firefighters to fill all of the vehicles.
When the firefighters from the Country Club and Simpson stations were out on the other calls, no one else was available to go to the Broadway fire.
Huhn said officials want to add another fire station in the future, but in the meantime, being short-staffed is the big problem.
The department hasn’t had to lay off any firefighters in recent rounds of city budget cuts, but it has left four positions unfilled and hasn’t hired more firefighters to keep up with growth in Bend.
He said the kind of situation that happened on Wednesday is becoming more common.
“Unfortunately, the potential is there virtually every day,” Huhn said. (Continue reading)
Who works for a department that has NOT had apparatus removed from service permanently?
How would you combat questioning if this happened in your department?
When will enough be enough. The Russian Roulette of the fire service.
Until something changes for a lot of localities…9 minute response times…get used to it!
