nothin Grant: Engine 8’s Removal A Done Deal | New Haven Independent

Grant: Engine 8’s Removal A Done Deal

Uma Ramiah Photo

Grant addresses East Rockers Tuesday night.

Hours before East Rock’s Engine 8 was pressed into service for a fatal fire across town, some East Rockers besieged — and at times shouted at — the fire chief to save the truck.

The shouting took place in the basement of Little Hooker” School on Canner Street. Fire Chief Michael Grant and Assistant Chiefs Patrick Egan and Ralph Black met with neighbors to discuss a plan to take one of Whitney Station’s two fire engines out of service as part of a budget-cutting measure. The department plans to get rid of Engine 8, and purchase and staff two Advanced Life Support (ALS) vehicles: station wagons with highly trained medical personnel. (For background on the ALS vehicles, see here.)

About 40 people attended the meeting. A group of neighbors peppered the chief with questions.

Chief, as my boss, no one has to tell me how much passion you have for the firemen, and I appreciate you being here,” firefighter Kevin Donohue told Grant at the meeting. But the same passion you have for your firemen, we have for our neighborhood.”

Kevin Donohue.

We’re worried about the station being stretched thin.”

Two years ago almost to the day, we nearly had an electrical fire in our home,” said one upset East Rock resident. If it wasn’t for Engine 8, my house and my neighbors house would have been in flames.”

She said she didn’t want to hear about how the station’s other engine could have arrived: They could be elsewhere for hours at a time, and I’d have to wait.”

It was a two-minute response time the last time, she said. What if it’s seven, or nine minutes now with these changes? One minute would have killed my family.”

The chiefs had no concrete data on potential changes to response time, but nonetheless assured the crowd that there would be no drastic increase.

It certainly won’t be five to seven minutes more,” said Grant, responding to a hypothetical proposed by one East Rocker. It could be up to a minute more in the most extreme circumstances,” he admitted, again responding to a direct inquiry.

New Haven fire response has a built-in redundancy, he explained.

So when one fire truck is out on a call, the next nearest station is on call for that neighborhood,” he said. We make sure everyone is covered.”

Dictated by Calls

After a great deal of back and forth and general confusion, a picture emerged of what the fire department intends for East Rock.

This move addresses a concern we have to make sure we get the highest level of medical response that we can get,” Grant explained. My interest lies in keeping New Haven residents safe.”

Grant told the aggravated audience that 79 percent of calls to the fire department are for emergency medical service (EMS).

And at this point, we only have two ALS units responding to some 12,000 EMS calls per year.”

We want that at 3,000, he said.

With the same number of people, we can address those medical calls better.”

According to rough data, Grant said, the fire department received around 32,800 calls in 2006. In 2010, it received 23,100.

So we’re also looking at a reduction in volume of calls,” he said.

While the five positions on Engine 8 would be eliminated, four positions would be added — two positions per ALS vehicle. The fifth Engine 8 position, a captain position, would remain, but would be redirected to other services.

Egan.

So in the end, the number of personnel on each shift would remain the same,” at 73, Egan said.

A Done Decision

Bill Donohue.

So what the motivating factor for this change?” asked East Rocker Bill Donohue (Kevin’s father).

It’s all about improving service, Grant replied.

And is the city saving any money by making this change?” Donohue continued.

There is a cost savings, the fire chiefs explained. The ALS vehicles will run about $60,000 each fully loaded, while Engine 8 cost the city about $500,000 plus maintenance.

There’s also some revenue generation through the ALS vehicles,” said Egan. The city can bill insurance providers for emergency medical service response with those units. Fire Engine 8 does not generate revenue.

But that’s a collateral issue,” Egan continued. That’s not why we made this decision.”

People don’t like change unless it’s their change, Donohue said. So whose change is this?” he asked. And how long have you been planning this? Is this one of those duck and cover announcements? Or are you planning with us?”

Grant said it was his decision — fully. It came from me, not from anywhere at the top,” he said.

And the decision, he told the group, had already been made and would not be reversed. The personnel are in training, and the ALS vehicles will go into service around four months from now,” he said.

This revelation came towards the end of the two-hour meeting. It elicited shouts and exclamations from the gathered crowd. What was the point of this meeting then?” asked one resident, as people streamed out in frustration.

Grant and Egan with East Rockers after the meeting

East Rock Aldermen Matt Smith and Justin Elicker, joined by a few others, stayed after the meeting to talk to the chiefs.

It makes people feel pretty disillusioned when you say this is already a done deal,” Elicker explained to Grant and Egan. It has the potential to really make things worse, and to encourage people to organize against the fire department.”

Egan and Grant promised to email statistics and an outline of the plan to the Aldermen for distribution.

I just think that if we had been given an early warning with all the information before a final decision was made,” Elicker said, This could have been a different conversation all together.”

Hours later, at 1:30 a.m., a fire broke out in Fair Haven. Three people died in that fire.

Kevin Donohue noted that Engine 8 was part of the response to the second alarm. He said that proved Engine 8 shouldn’t be removed from service. When things do go wrong, you’re not set up structurally to handle it,” he said.

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