Crime & Safety

Union County Firefighters Burn Over Staff Cuts

As a Westfield fire union official says one more on-duty firefighter could have saved Ferraro's from ruin, Union County departments feel strain from tight budgets and more county-wide calls.

Anyone shopping in Westfield’s bustling downtown can still smell the charred remains of Ferraro’s, the landmark Westfield restaurant and lounge that nearly a month ago.

As Ferraro’s owners begin the long process of rebuilding — and the residents of the apartments above the restaurant cope with losing their homes and possessions — firefighters are hotter than the six-alarm blaze as they discuss the cuts that have impacted firehouses across Union County.

Firefighter union officials say the the Westfield Fire Department could possibly have saved Ferraro’s building had enough men been on duty to operate the town’s ladder truck. A seven-man crew is needed to operate the ladder truck and both engine trucks but only six firefighters were on duty when the first alarm rang on May 5. The blaze required 16 departments and 76 firefighters to bring it under control.

Find out what's happening in Springfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“To see the place get destroyed and to have our ladder truck 150 yards away,” said Mike Sawicki, president of the union representing Westfield’s fire department. “It would have made a difference. Maybe we could have saved the building.”

Sawicki said the town is trying to get by with one of the county’s most understaffed departments. The six-men duty crews, down from nine-men, must cover six square miles and more than 30,000 people.

Find out what's happening in Springfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In June 2010, the fire department cut the mandatory minimum on fire crews from seven to six, which Deputy Fire Chief David Kelly said in a previous interview that the move was done due to the town's budget crisis and the rise in overtime among firefighters.

Since the manpower issue developed in the summer of 2010, Westfield officials have said the staffing levels were determined to prevent further cuts and cited negotiations with the local fire union to preserve jobs. At a public meeting in April when residents were concerned about manpower after a four-alarm fire at the Hamilton House Apartments, Westfield Councilman Mark Ciarrocca said the town is working to prevent the creation of an all-volunteer department.

in regard to the Ferraro’s fire, Westfield Town Administrator Jim Gildea praised the fire department  and described its response as a "textbook excellent job in containing a downtown fire that could have been catastrophic.”

“I don’t want my house burning either,” Gildea said at the meeting. “To suggest that any of you up here or me or anyone else reduced the fire department staff because we’re not worried about our community or our homes is ridiculous.”

In many towns across Union County, fire safety and staffing levels are ongoing issues but it usually takes a serious fire or severe budget reductions for them to be brought to the forefront of public discussion.

"We are well understaffed," Sawicki said. "But a lot of them are understaffed."

Former Springfield  Deputy Mayor Bart Fraenkel  has said his township's fire department needed more members.

"We are not fully staffed," Fraenkel said in a political debate last year. "Public safety has not been a priority."

 

A NATIONAL TREND

Union County is not alone in feeling the burn of smaller staffs at local fire stations.

"This is happening across the country with the economy," said Ken Willette, Manager of the Public Fire Protection Division of the National Fire Protection Association. "So many fire departments have layoffs and reductions in service and it's generating a lot of community discussion about what is the appropriate amount to invest."

In terms of staffing, national standards call for at least four firefighters per truck to arrive on a scene within four minutes of the first alarm.

Willette, a former fire chief, emphasized that the national standards are not mandatory and each decision on manpower and response is up to the local fire chief.

"Our standards are provided as a best practice," Willette said. "Two to three guys can man a truck — that happens all across America. It's a local decision and in some cases that is all the staff available at that time and it's the best a community can do."

 

STAFFING A VOLUNTEER DEPARTMENT

In Scotch Plains, Capt. Brian Mecca is never quite sure how many firefighters will be available to respond to an alarm. If three firefighters were all he had to respond that is what he would use on a truck.

"We are a volunteer department," he said. "My staffing levels are whoever shows up when a fire whistle goes off."

Mecca said the number of volunteers available depends on the time of day, since they work full-time jobs and are more likely to respond to an evening fire than a daytime one.

Mecca has about 30 volunteers in his company, which he said is probably the highest volunteer staff the town has seen in 20 years.

But that doesn't mean the department isn't struggling, he added.

The town still has to pay for a full-time chief, firefighter training and equipment and Mecca said the town still asks them to cut the budget.

"They are looking for a 10 percent cut in our budget and ours is next to nothing," he said. "It's tough to get new tires, things repaired. A lot of things we'd like to replace and we don't have the money."

If the town were to switch to a paid department, Mecca said it would likely cost about $4 million a year to staff and operate so he feels the town should invest in training and equipment since they save by being a volunteer department.

The Scotch Plains Fire Department budget is about $168,000 for 2011, not including costs associated with Fire Hydrant Service, the Uniform Fire Safety Act, or Emergency Management Service.

Union County fire departments have been sharing services for the past 40 years, Mecca said. One way towns are dealing with staffing issues is by asking the volunteer departments in nearby towns to help with night and weekend fires while their paid staff works during the day. In towns with volunteer departments, Mecca said the paid departments in nearby towns assist when volunteers can't.

But Mecca says that's not a long-term solution.

"Staffing is a big issue and it's being felt more now in the towns that are paid because everyone is trying to cut back and if the paid towns are calling more on volunteers, the volunteers feel they are getting overtaxed," Mecca said. "There is not animosity but some towns think they will cut half their fire department and call the volunteer town next door. Those guys don't want to go there twice a day."

Summit Fire Chief Joseph Houck said his department has been lucky to maintain its 32-member staffing level for the past 10 years. However, the number of volunteers has dropped significantly.

"There were a few fires last year when we called in our-off duty folks and volunteers and we got no volunteers and that has become a significant issue," Houck said. "We rely more on mutual aid."

In a typical year, Mecca said his department will provide mutual aid between 10 and 20 times. It's not a common occurrence and usually only happens for sizable incidents, he said.

In 2005, Scotch Plains experienced a five-alarm fire at a local restaurant and they called in additional resources through mutual aid, similar to the Ferraro's fire incident.

"No town in Union County is sized to handle a six-alarm fire (alone) so nobody is really staffed to do anything that big," Mecca said.

 

COUNTYWIDE PROTECTION

Across the county, fire chiefs are collecting information about staffing levels.

Cranford Fire Chief Leonard Dolan said the study is being done because all departments have been affected by staffing reductions.

"We are trying to assess our capability on a county-wide basis to provide fire protection," Dolan said. "We have a mutual aid situation in place which every major fire requires but since staffing is reduced throughout the county there is less people available to respond, which means we have to call in more communities. We are even going out of the county now for resources."

In Cranford, Dolan's 26 paid firefighters and 20 volunteers operate on a $2.7 million budget, which includes all expenses, salaries and wages, hydrant service, fuel costs for the entire town and other operating costs. That budget trimmed about $175,000, the equivalent of three staff members who have retired and not been replaced. The department, which once had seven-man platoons and now the department is down to three six-man platoons and one seven-man platoon.

"Ideally, I'd have the position that an ideal staffing level for a town like Cranford would be eight men per platoon," Dolan said. "The optimal number would be a 33-men department. We've never been at that level and realistically I don't expect we'll ever be at that level."

Dolan, who's been a firefighter for 34 years and the Cranford Chief since 1997, is frustrated by the cuts. He said his peers across the state are just as concerned about the future of their departments. If towns continue to choose to do more with less, Dolan said there is an increased risk to the public and to the firefighters because departments are forced to fight fires that require more people.

"I've been around the job my entire life because my dad was here and staffing is as bad as it's ever been," Dolan said. "Morale is not good. We're still going to do our job. No doubt about that. We just have to find new ways to get the job done.

We have to work a lot harder and be more focused on being safe."

Westfield Patch Editor John Celock contributed to this report.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.