April 12--Anticipated layoffs in the Hamilton Fire Department are being delayed at least a month until June 4, Fire Chief Steve Dawson told the JournalNews Thursday.
City officials were expected to lay off 18 firefighters on May 5 when a federal SAFER grant expires. But Dawson said the 103-firefighter department recently got word that the SAFER grant, which pays the salaries of at least a half dozen firefighters, has been extended for an additional 30 days.
"The fact that we got an extension is good news," the chief said. "There will be no layoffs until after June 4."
Dawson, who is in his first year as chief, also stressed that no final decision has been made about the number of firefighters that would be cut. He said the 18 projected positions are "a recommendation" by the consultants who performed a fire department efficiency study last year.
"A final number was never settled. No final decision has been made," Dawson said. "We are still in (contract) negotiations with the (firefighters) union and that will have an effect on that. We will also have some retirements that will offset some of that figure."
City officials decided at the end of last year that cutting firefighter jobs, reducing overtime and temporarily closing the Shuler Avenue fire station were necessary to balance the 2013 general fund budget. While the city has been experiencing rolling brownouts since Jan. 2, Dawson said it's still too early to determine if fire services are being impacted, especially since the layoffs and station closures are yet to be fully implemented.
Many residents have expressed concerns about the brownouts and proposed cuts. A few Campbell Avenue residents complained about the fire department's response time to a fire set Sunday night by an 8-year-old boy that burned seven structures and resulted in $38,000 in damages. One resident claimed it took the fire department at least 20 minutes to respond.
"It did seem like it took a long time for them to get here," said DeaEtta Miles, who lives near a garage on Campbell Avenue that caught fire. "We called (911) right away, but by the time they got here (fire) was shooting through the roof."
Miles said one firefighter even offered an apology stating they had to come from Millville Avenue, which is about three miles away.
Dawson said he reviewed dispatch reports and logs from the Sunday night fire, and they recorded that it took fire units five minutes and five seconds to respond to the Campbell Avenue blaze. He said on that particular day, Station 27 on Shuler Avenue was closed and that personnel from Station 25, the next closest, were on a medic run, so fire units had to come from elsewhere.
The chief acknowledged that had the closer Shuler Avenue station been open, units would have arrived quicker.
"But I can't do 'what-ifs,' " he said.
An analysis of response times in the Station 27 area during the first three months of 2013 show a 15-second increase in response times, Dawson said. He said any data collected now is hardly conclusive as three months is not a large enough sample size. He said year-end data will tell the true tale.
"Those figures are somewhat premature. They are somewhat diluted because a lot of times we still had that station(27) open on several days," Dawson said, noting that out of 90 days this year, Station 27 has been browned out 58 days. "Once the closure goes into effect and after the layoffs, we may be able to look at and get a more accurate reflection of our response times."
There have been 2,787 calls for services so far this year, according to city records. That's down by approximately 100 runs compared to the same period a year ago, Dawson said. He added that the average response time citywide this year is about the same as in 2012 when it was 5 minutes and 31 seconds per run.
Brownouts are based on the number of available personnel the fire department has on a given day, which can be impacted by vacations, sick or injury leave or days off. Dawson said on a typical 24-hour shift, 28 fire personnel will be on duty to man five fire units and three medic units.
The chief said the city has a practice of not letting fire staffing dip below 22 people. If that looks like it might happen, overtime could be authorized, Dawson said. So far this year, the department has only had to use overtime once, he said. In 2011, the city paid more than $1 million in overtime pay to firefighters to keep a minimum of seven fire trucks and three EMS units in operation.
"I know these are changing times and challenging times for the firefighters," he said. "They are still hustling to these runs and their sense of duty has not diminished or changed.
"No fire chief wants to see fire stations close. That's the very last thing on the list he wants to see," Dawson said. "But the reality of our economic times requires something else. I have two goals in mind through these changes: I want to keep the citizens safe, and I want to keep the firefighters safe."
Editor Kevin Aldridge contributed to this report.
Copyright 2013 - Hamilton JournalNews, Ohio
