SOUTH PORTLAND — At a workshop session Monday, the South Portland
City Council gave the green light to hiring two new
firefighters for the remainder of the fiscal year, at a cost of $52,000.
Although all four councilors present at the
meeting gave strong support to the measure, their decision may have been
bolstered by a performance staged by 14 firefighters who attended the meeting.
Saying that he thinks better visually, John
Beyer, president of International Association of Firefighters Local 1476, asked
the other 13 members of his department to stand. Thirteen, he noted, is the
number of career firefighters on duty every night in South Portland. Only 11
are on hand during the day, due to the elimination of two positions in 2009, as
part of recession-year budgeting.
Beyer then had two men sit down to simulate the
day shift. All South Portland firefighters also are EMTs in the post 9/11
world, so Beyer asked four more men to sit down, to simulate two separate calls
coming in simultaneously – a likely occurence given the 3,225 EMS calls the
department fielded in 2011.
On most of those calls, Beyer said, the
ambulance goes out accompanied by an “engine assist,” and at that four more men
sat down.
That left just three men standing, at which
Beyer turned to the council and asked them to imagine their houses on fire.
“Thirteen is really a bare minimum,” said Beyer.
“Personally, I think we need 16 is where we have to be – daytime, nighttime, it
doesn’t matter. In a five-year plan, I
think we need to be at 18.”
“I think, in many ways, we’ve been very lucky
over the years,” said Councilor Gerald Jalbert, noting that the addition only
restores the two positions previously cut.
Councilor Tom Coward also supported the staffing
change, but pointed out that the city does take advantage of mutual aid from
neighboring cities and towns, as well as a large staff of volunteer
firefighters.
“We are very well protected in this, the
heaviest industrial area in the state,” he said. “What this really is, is a
matter of response time.”
According to Mike Williams, vice president of
the 900-strong Professional Firefighters of Maine, the National Fire Protection
Association standard for response time is to arrive on scene with a full
compliment of 16 trained firefighters – the minimum needed to fill each
NFPA-defined position on the fire ground – within eight minutes of dispatch.
“We do not meet that 90 percent of the time,” he
said.
“This is a very serious concern, not only for
the homeowner but for us,” said Williams. “The less manpower we have, the
greater chance we will be injured.”
The $52,000 requested by Fire Chief Kevin
Guimond has already been budgeted. Councilors set aside six-months in salary
and benefits for two firefighters at the beginning of the budget year, but held
out on the rest in hopes the department might score a federal grant. That did
not happen and, in the meantime, three firefighters have retired, while one has
resigned.
That, said Guimond, has put additional stress on
his budget, as he’s been forced to pay overtime to cover shifts enough to
maintain the 11 at day/13 at night crews.
“I need to be on record that 16 per shift is
where we need to end up,” he wrote, in a memo to the council.
The $104,000 needed to man the two new positions
for FY 2013 does not include equipping or training those new recruits. Even though an EMT-basic license is expected
to be posted as the minimum qualification, there are other concerns.
“It takes a considerable amount of time to hire
and promote with the current civil service process,” he wrote.
A CLOSER LOOK
Recent South Portland Fire Department calls
Year Fire EMS Total
2010 1,271 2,876 4,147
2011 1,121 3,225 4,361
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