Taunton - Step by step, the thorny issue of the fire department replacing defective, portable hand-radio batteries is nearing some semblance of closure.
Last week the City Council's Committee on Fires and Wires passed a motion instructing Taunton Fire Chief Leman Padelford to tell them why approximately 40 batteries -- according to the department's Safety Committee -- had still not been replaced.
A week later it remained an imbroglio, but at least this Tuesday night the chief was there to try to shed some much needed light.
"We are doing it," Padelford asserted at one point, when asked if he has taken steps to identify and remove batteries no longer capable of retaining a charge. Padelford acknowledged he's received "a number of reports" in the past from within his department warning of dying batteries. To his credit, he said that since August of 2006 there has been a 30-percent turnover of inventory. He also, however, said it remains unclear "which batteries are dead" and which are good but are simply not being charged properly.
Also unclear, he told the council, is exactly how he intends to weed out those defective batteries and order fresh replacements.
The batteries that power the two-way radios cost $75 apiece.
Making matters difficult is the fact that the chief and representatives of the department's Safety Committee -- officially a union body -- continue to be at loggerheads.
Safety Committee chairman Kevin C. Farrar Tuesday night read aloud a letter he had written addressed to the council on behalf of himself and other firefighters.
The letter, which discussed two areas of concern in addition to the defective batteries, was critical of Chief Padelford. It stated that members of the department "have approached our chief in these matters, and are unable to obtain either clear or satisfactory answers."
"We do not wish to burden the council or city ... however, we have reached a tipping point and require assistance in obtaining our goal of safer firefighting." Captain Steve Robbins of the Weir fire station revisited an account given last week by councilor Daniel Mansour Barbour, in which he described Robins' radio dying out as he was trying to help a pedestrian who had been struck by a vehicle.
To further emphasize the gravity of the issue, he also recounted a Park Street fire last March when two lieutenants, who were temporarily stuck on an upper floor of a burning apartment building, had successfully radioed for assistance. "It's like Russian Roulette," Robbins said of the current situation.
Farrar cautioned that the batteries, to some extent, are inherently unpredictable: "Some last two or 12 hours," he said. "It depends on the usage." He indicated that of the 69 batteries currently in the department more than a third, at least, should immediately be taken out of service and replaced.
Republished with permission from The Taunton Daily Gazette
