Dec. 2 -- WILKES-BARRE, PA -- The afternoon of Aug. 15, Wilkes-Barre Fire Department’s Engine 1 filled up with 24.74 gallons of diesel fuel at the city pumps, a routine repeated 38 more times over the following eight weeks of daily patrols under the ramped-up community fire watches ordered by the mayor.
Engine 1, based at the department’s headquarters at the East Ross Street station, took on 750 gallons total during the watches, almost double the fuel intake for the eight weeks in June and July, according to fuel logs obtained by the Times Leader through a Right-to-Know request.
Fuel for the other three engines, aerial ladder truck and special operations vehicle made for a total of 2,707.59 gallons to meet the daily directives of driving through the neighborhoods around-the-clock. In the eyes of Mayor Tony George, the watches made fire personnel more visible and put them in a better position to respond to fires.
The enhanced initiative cost the city $7,039.73, based on the bulk price of $2.60 a gallon, and consumed more than a quarter of the department’s $25,000 annual fuel budget. But while the city struggles to balance its budget, the additional expense was acceptable to the mayor based on his public safety and life-protecting metrics.
“Is somebody’s life worth that much money?” George asked Thursday.
The watches, that have been cut back to alternating apparatus on rotating patrols as of Oct. 6, put firefighters and equipment in “a proactive instead of reactive” position on the streets rather than in the stations, George said. They were closer to scene and the fewer minutes spent traveling could save a life, he added.
“Fortunately, there were no big fires,” said the mayor.
Unfortunately, the watches wasted the department’s resources, according to Local 104 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, the union representing city firefighters.
Union president Mike Bilski pointed out the department had been conducting watches for years before the mayor instituted the changes that put firefighters on near-constant patrol.
“We believe there was little or no forethought into the hazards, or risk management into such a policy. One of the basic problems would be that of cost. In our estimate, fuel costs have risen exponentially over the last three weeks,” Local 104 President Mike Bilski said in a Sept. 1 post on the union’s Facebook page.
The union later filed an unfair labor practice with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board against the city, saying the watches and the hydrant inspections assigned to firefighters as of Aug. 15 were “the equivalent of a ‘punishment detail’” brought in retaliation for criticism of the mayor on social media.
‘Browned out’
Three days before the mayor ordered the watches, the union posted that it doubted the Aug. 12 fire on Stanton Street would have gone to a general alarm fire if Engine 3 was in service. Due to the minimum 11 firefighters on duty at the time, Engine 3 was “browned out” — or not in service due to manpower — at the South Station on High Street. As a result, another engine had to respond from Parsons, a farther distance across town.
Engine 3 as well as Engine 5 returned to service during the watches, acting as backups when other vehicles broke down. The fuel logs tracked their fill-ups between Aug. 15 and Oct. 5:
- Engine 3, 16 pump visits for a total of 290.63 gallons
- Engine 5, 25 visits, 506.51 gallons
- Engine 1, 38 visits, 750.73 gallons
- Engine 2, 13 visits, 281.78 gallons
- Truck 6, 19 visits, 470.40 gallons
- Special Operations 1, 30 visits, 407.54 gallons
Mayor George rescinded his order and on Oct. 6 restored the watches to their previous status after evaluating data and information collected from the two-month period when the patrols were underway.
But George left open the possibility of further changes.
“We’re testing the waters and see how it works,” he said.
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