Volunteer firefighters in Norwich feel blind-sided by a recent ordinance passed by the city council.
An automatic aid policy that sends paid city firefighters to serious calls in five districts covered by volunteers has ignited a firestorm, WFSB reported.
It's pitting volunteers against career crews, and some wonder what's the real reason behind the measure.
Laurel Hill Fire Chief Aaron Westervelt said that all chiefs previously worked on an Automatic Aid policy that was supposed to go into effect on November 1.
Instead, the new ordinance brought at the end of October didn’t include input from volunteer department heads.
“Things were done behind our backs,” Westervelt said. “If you start taking those things away from volunteers, what’s going to make them show up?"
He explained: “The wording of the ordinance now says all calls. Let’s define all calls. So a medical call that goes out at a city-owned property, let’s say the golf course. Does a city unit now respond to that because that’s a call on the city property? According to the ordinance, you’d have to send a city unit, even if it’s a volunteer unit.”
Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom agrees the ordinance posed problems for the city and morale of the volunteers.
"If they diminish the volunteer spirit of service and don’t get out to make calls, someone has to respond. I firmly believe this is (City Council Pro Tem President Joe) DeLucia’s effort to push the fire tax city wide.”
