STAMFORD, Conn.-- Tensions between the city's career and volunteer firefighters escalated this week after a flap at the Springdale Firehouse on Saturday night, during which the Springdale fire chief prevented four paid firefighters assigned to the firehouse from pulling their engine into the firehouse by blocking their bay with his personal chief's vehicle.
Springdale Fire Chief Shawn Fahan said he pulled his personal chief's vehicle out in front of the bay used by Engine 7, the paid firefighters vehicle, to do an engine check. When Engine 7 returned from a call, the truck was not able to enter its bay. Fahan was approached by a paid fire captain with whom he's had a long-running dispute about radio procedures. "I told him, 'If you can't follow the rules and procedures of the Springdale Fire Department, I suggest you leave,'" said Fahan.
The incident occurred after the dispute with that particular fire captain came to a head -- the captain, Fahan said, has refused for months to use the 154-megahertz radio system used by the volunteer fire departments and has used Stamford Fire & Rescue's 800-megahertz system instead. The volunteers wear mobile pagers that don't pick up the 800-megahertz frequency. "There have been times when the volunteers have come down to the firehouse, not knowing the call has already ended," he said.
William Callion, director of public safety, health and welfare for the city, was one of the officials who responded to the scene at Springdale on Saturday. He dismisses Fahan's story about the engine check. When he arrived at the firehouse, said Callion, all the Springdale vehicles were parked in front of the firehouse, barricading all the bays. Engine 7 could not even turn around, he said.
"To shut out a fire engine because of a dispute over radio procedure is not a very mature thing to do," said Callion. He added that blocking the engine's access was unsafe and said fire officials met with Fahan to ensure it will never happen again. "Unfortunately they've done this before," said Callion, who said a similar barricade occurred at Springdale within the last year.
There are 21 paid firefighters assigned to the Springdale firehouse; four captains, 16 firefighters and one fire marshall. The paid firefighters report to McGrath, but obey the rules and the officials of the firehouses to which they are assigned.
Callion said that neither he nor Stamford Fire & Rescue Chief Robert McGrath were aware of the dispute between Fahan and the paid captain about radio use. Fahan said that he spoke to Stamford Fire & Rescue's Deputy Fire Chief David Jones about the problem two weeks ago.
Fire union vice president David Davis was unavailable for comment at presstime.
Fahan will meet with Callion, McGrath and union representatives to discuss this issue again in January.
In the meantime, he says the incident resulted from his argument with the paid fire captain and has little to do with the incipient merger between the city's paid and volunteer fire departments.
Callion is skeptical.
"The engine was locked out -- that constitutes more than a beef with one person," he said.
Republished with permission of The Stamford Times.
