Detroit Mayor says 164 Firefighters will be laid off by end of July.

[Andyboyfire]

Link to original page: http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/D...z/-/index.html

Well... With the state of the city I can't say I didn't expect this...

Did Detroit Fire do as the Police Department did and get rid of the pension system for any future hires, I believe for a one time payout after 20 or 25 years I think it was?

[Picc.93Truck]

Did Detroit Fire do as the Police Department did and get rid of the pension system for any future hires, I believe for a one time payout after 20 or 25 years I think it was?

I'm not sure, that would be a question for FireCapt1951retired

[FireCapt1951retired]

The Police and Fire are in the same pension system. The system will be closed to any new hires and they will be offered a 401K. All present members will stay in the system.

[Chief_Roy]

Spare us your business adages. The fact is, Detroit has gotten a few new rigs, but the rest of the fleet is beat to crap. The firehouses are old, decrepit and should be be condemned, and the amount of fires the Detroit FD has been responding to keeps increasing; meanwhile, the City of Detroit is building a Taj Mahal for the brass while raw sewerage seeps from the firehouses.

Get your head out of your alimentary canal, wake up and see what's going on before making assinine comments like you just did.

That's what people don't get sometimes. I see it in our politicians all the time even though I try to educate them until I'm blue in the face. They somehow think that population growth or decline has to be tied to call volume. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. I'm in a significantly growing area, where we experienced 20% call volume increases in just the last 6 years. But our population has only grown by about 10% in that period of time. This one councilman basically accused me of cooking the stats because he couldn't see how it was possible for call volume to increase faster than population (sigh).

Communities like Detroit are not the exception. I myself worked for a department that had been experiencing declining population for over a decade, yet call volume continued to increase by up to 5% each year. Poverty, age of population, drugs...they all impact call volume more than simple population and industry numbers. Now if Detroit's population and industry decline also corresponded with a 30% decrease in fire department call volume...few would likely be able to tell you with a straight face that they needed to maintain the same level of service/employees. But that's not the case with Detroit. They need to find a way to maintain these people or they can simply watch the city burn to the ground.

[Pipeman4]

FireCapt1951retired

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FireCapt1951retired is offline Nice post 5ss Brother

[roninwarrior]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAiGLrY2Mkw&t=0m9s

Pretty sad

[FireCapt1951retired]

They closed 18 companies on the 4th and it wasn't due to sick calls as someone alluded to in the utube comments!!!!! Today (July 5th) they closed 22 companies, leaving 37 Engines, Trucks and Squads, I believe it is 20 Engines Companies, 11 Ladder Companies and 6 Heavy rescues for manpower (as told to me today by a BC) to cover 139 sq. miles. That left total staffing at 165 for the entire city. He's gone to 2 Engines, 1 Truck, 1 squad and BC on all box alarms. There's also the RIT team, Safety officer and a Staging Officer at the scenes from the responding companies which we all know lowers the actual firefighting manpower at each fire. He also wants to take the Engines from 4 to 3 and keep the trucks and Squads with 4 depending on the number of on duty personell.

My son is a FF in Detroit (3rd generation) just as I was for over 33 years. He is literally getting the crap kicked out of him every shift and there is no end in sight.

The injury rates are beginning to sky rocket. The Commissioner said absolutely no overtime for any firefighters and my guess is he'll just keep closing as many companies as he has to, regardless of the consequences. He is supposedly (won't name drop) asking for 14 more people on his staff though, go figure. I firmly believe he was hired as a hatchet man and he's going to cut until it hurts because it doesn't effect him and his salary (highest paid commissioner in department history). He was allowed to even hire his own person that's an attorney and made that person Deputy Commissioner. He retired out of L.A. City F.D. as Chief with more than not, a hefty pension and believe it or not he told people he only fought 11 structure fires and was IC only once in 30 years (he actually admitted this to a Batt Chief). I believe the individuals inside that state he spent most of his time in the Forestry Division then the Fire Boat and the Airport. He states that Detroit Firefighters only fight easy fires and don't have it that hard. At least he isn't making them wear those odd looking helmets. Individuals can believe this or not but I believe the sources (high enough to know) and have heard it from to many others inside the department to disregard it.

Don't worry though, the top honchos in the FD and PD will all have their MULTI-MILLON dollar digs.

The fact is, people are going to die and the city will just go on as usual while each City Clowncil member of which there are 9 recieve a 1.4 million dollar budget each each year and the department heads get their nice sized cut of the pie.

I'll stop here before I say something I'll reget.

7-6-12

Talked to an individual who worked yesterday and was told that they actually closed 26 companies yesterday with a total staffing of around 146. There's going to be a minimum of 21 closings today.

[Dickey]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAiGLrY2Mkw&t=0m9s

Pretty sad

This is pretty sad.

Prayers you guys stay safe!!

[Pipeman4]

FireCapt you said it best! I have several Bro's i know on that dept. and when your doing 6 hrs a shift of fire duty...Bro's and Sister's are going to lose their lives not mention the public.

[FireCapt1951retired]

FireCapt you said it best! I have several Bro's i know on that dept. and when your doing 6 hrs a shift of fire duty...Bro's and Sister's are going to lose their lives not mention the public.

Those numbers will climb. I know companies that are fighting as many as 10 fires a day right now.

Now along with the closings on a daily basis, they now have to put with these sinking thieves taking everything the firefighters bought, along with everything not nailed down.

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/18...oit-firehouses

[Picc.93Truck]

Capt, I wish your son the best right now. Its amazing to think that me and my boys couldn't catch a job if we tried. And we have guys doing 10 in a shift...

[Pipeman4]

Agreed Capt they are some of the BEST in the world!

[Picc.93Truck]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1659635.html

I guess a SAFER Grant brought back 108 of these guys. Same thing that happend next to me, in Scranton, PA.

Its amazing, I thought I had issues managing money sometimes...

[Andyboyfire]

Did I read correctly somewhere that this budget actually is allowing for the hiring of Detroit FD EMT's?

[FireCapt1951retired]

Haven't heard of them even considering the hiring of any Medics. The problem is that even if they were to hire, there are no rigs for them use and what they have is in dismal condition.

[gunnyv]

7-6-12

Talked to an individual who worked yesterday and was told that they actually closed 26 companies yesterday with a total staffing of around 146. There's going to be a minimum of 21 closings today.

Just finished reading a book about the Detroit riots in 1967-the DFD's daily manpower at the time was approx 500, and they had a full recall. Other than the days of the riots, they have far more fires now than they did then.