RECENT COMMENTS
Has the city’s firefighting capacity been cut?
An email from Church Hill Association President John Johnson describes an issue that has come up recently at the CHA: there is word going around that the city’s firefighting capacity has been reduced and the CHA has not been able to find out the truth of the situation… Can anyone speak to this?
From the email:
It was suggested that they are counting “Rescue” personnel manning the Fire Houses as Firemen or counting them as manning the station -although they are not really firefighters. To cover the fire fighting needs other, more distant stations are broadening their coverage areas and thus probably increasing response times in cases of emergency or fires in the immediate area of the reduced coverage stations. […] the stations coverage has been reduced up to one-third from previous coverage in terms of personnel and hours available to respond to emergencies.
There’s a difference between a fire company and a fire station. The station is the physical building; the company is the apparatus and personnel that are housed within it. Typically, a fire company in Richmond has four personnel: an officer and three firefighters. Rescue companies are staffed with firefighters with additional specialized training, and typically have an officer and 4-5 firefighters on the roster every day.
There are three stations within the city that house two companies:
Station 1 (24th and Broad) Quint 1 and Rescue 1, the dive team.
Station 10 (Hermitage Rd) Quint 10 and Rescue 2, Heavy/Tactical rescue.
Station 13, (Commerce Rd) Quint 13 and Rescue 3, Hazmat.
Normally a “two-company house,” has nine to ten people on duty (4 on the quint and 5-6 on the rescue). The administration can and does close down one of the companies within each double house, which cuts staffing without “closing” the station.
Additionally, there are utility vehicles that are used to do things like refill air bottles on fire scenes, provide rehab, and transport supplies that are needed citywide. These are usually the first slots cut when there’s a budget shortage. The next thing to go is the fifth man on the rescue company, then the fourth, then the quints start getting shut down.
The potential effect this could have on firefighting operations should be fairly obvious. It’s very easy from a budgeting standpoint to justify cutting people, because it “won’t affect response time”…never mind that there are half as many people there as there would have been. The fire department has never been revenue generating, and government loves to chop things that have no return. It seems like a risky bet.
I think Jennifer has it right. For the past several monthes, the City Administriton has tried quietly to reduce costs, in several different areas. Firefighting has had some significant cuts, driven by the Chief. Next to come is an effort by the Jones Administration to take over Emergency Services from the Richmond Ambulance Authority, which has the best reponse time in the region.
“…and government loves to chop things that have no return. It seems like a risky bet.”
But Center Stage is finally open now so everything is ok, right?
Chief Creecy from the Fire Department will be sending a representative to the Ms Squie’s 7th District meeting on Saturday to answer questions on fire coverage. Please invite any of the Church Hill Association to attend to ask questions. They will be first on the agenda.
Place: 1708 North 22nd Street Peter Paul Development Center
Time: 10:00 AM
A key question for Creecy will be response time. Since these rolling reductions of service have been in place for several months, the question is whether it has had any effect on first unit response, and second unit response.