It's a happy day at Station 59, at least in terms of what's happened with the building. A ceremony was held Tuesday morning to mark the reopening of the station after extensive renovations.
But because of procedural changes in the Houston Fire Department, not everybody is happy. Tuesday marks the beginning of the new response procedure.
Fire department officials are calling it a task force style response. Now ten stations out of all 88 low response stations around Houston will send two trucks -- an engine and a ladder -- with the firefighters to each call. That's instead of the regular one truck with four firefighters.
Union leaders don't like this idea because they say it spreads manpower way too thin. The chief says it meets national guidelines, keeps the firefighters safe and it's expected to save the department $6.3 million.
"Engine operators have definitive jobs to do on the fire grounds, whether it be setting up fans or lights on the ladder truck, working the pump on an engine company," explained HFD Chief Chris Connealy. "If we didn't need those positions, we wouldn't have them. So everyone has a role."
That's really been the message from the chief ever since the beginning. On the other side, union leaders are saying this amounts to three firefighters on each truck, something they were promised would never happen, especially after the death of Jay Janke.
Station 59 is one of the stations that is part of the new task force procedure.
