Markeshia Ricks Photo
Stancil signs a petition while Firefighter Ed Taylor and Battalion Chief Mark Vendetto look on.
Firefighters and some Edgewood neighbors pushed back at a rally Monday afternoon against the Harp administration’s plans to remove Engine 9 from the Ellsworth Avenue firehouse.
With the sounds of the Caribbean Vibe Steel Drum Band as a backdrop, more than 100 firefighters and neighbors gathered at the firehouse Monday to sign a petition and to call on Mayor Toni Harp to reconsider a plan that she argues will will not only save the city money, but also save more lives. The administration, after a lengthy planning process, decided it made more sense to have an ambulance stationed on the west side of the town rather than two full trucks, since the majority of calls that come in are for medical assistance.
Ricci: Every neighborhood deserves a fire engine.
New Haven Fire Fighters Local 825 President Frank Ricci said at the rally that he believes that the mayor has been given some bad information and the union is ready to sit down with her at any time to discuss the matter. He joked that he doesn’t enjoy calling press conferences; he enjoys crashing them.
But he said it was necessary to let downtown know that the neighborhood and the firefighters are in accord and they make their feelings known to Harp. He encouraged people to email and tweet City Hall. Acting Fire Chief Matt Marcarelli attended the rally in support.
“Every neighborhood deserves to have a neighborhood fire engine,” Ricci said. “All they’d have to do, without even increasing the budget, is to simply add on an additional emergency unit to enhance our paramedic service and insure that every neighborhood has a fire engine that can respond to medicals and fires.”
Ricci said it wouldn’t cost the city more money because the administration is already hiring paramedics and the positions are in the current budget.
“We’re not at full staff right now,” he said. Ricci accused city officials of “neighborhood shopping” on a quest to cut an engine from a neighborhood firehouse. He said a similar attempt was made in East Rock a few years ago.
Former Alder McCormack.
Neighbor William Stancil, who signed the petition, said he could attest to the quickness and efficiency of Engine 9’s service.
Jean Claude and Duane Huff of the Caribbean Vibe Steel Drum Band kept every thing irie.
Stancil, who has lived in the neighborhood for 13 years, said he had a neighbor who was sick and needed help.
“I went right over to the fire house and they came to help,” he said.
His wife, Serease Kittrell, said she feels safer knowing that the fire engine is right in the neighborhood.
“You get a real safe feeling when you know they are so close by,” she said.
In addition to neighbors like Stancil and Kittrell, neighborhood movers and shakers like former Alder Liz McCormack and Rabbi Daniel Greer came to show their support for keeping Engine 9 in the neighborhood.
The Administration’s Side
A Harp administration committee, which included two former fire chiefs, drew up a plan to put Engine 9 out of commission at the Ellsworth Avenue firehouse and replace it with a smaller paramedic unit. An estimated 75 to 80 percent of the approximately 25,000 calls that come into the fire department each year are for medical services. The administration argues that it will cost less — and get firefighters there more quickly — to send the smaller ambulances. It is seeking to increase from two to four the number of department ambulances in the city. The west side of town currently doesn’t have one in operation.
It costs $750,000 to $800,000 to purchase and then fully outfit an engine, according to emergency management chief Rick Fontana, a member of the committee that drew up the plan. Four firefighters are needed to operate it. The two new paramedic units recently purchased by the city cost $55,000 and $90,000, he said.
Harp argued on a recent edition of WNHH radio’s “Mayor Monday” that the big engines wear out faster by being sent unnecessarily to medical calls, and they’re harder to navigate through narrow streets, especially in winter.
The proposed change “actually is a more efficient way to carry out the business of the fire department,” Harp said. “I don’t understand why the leadership of the fire union doesn’t get that, and why they are stoking fears in people. It is irresponsible and unacceptable to me that they are doing that. … We are actually making people safer.”
The Ellsworth firehouse is one of only two of 10 in the city to have both an engine company and a squad truck. The Harp administration plans to keep Squad 2 at the firehouse. It will serve as the neighborhood’s fire truck to respond quickly to fires, Fontana said.
The disinformation aside, this isn't closing the Ellsworth firehouse. Instead it's replacing one of the fire engines with a paramedic squad.
I hope the NHI and the Harp administration might give us a full-scale examination of our budget for fire protection. Is it as "fat" as many people suggest? Is there no way to pare down costs while maintaining an adequate level of protection?
What I know is that our property taxes are ridiculously high. Where else in America do you pay 3% of what your house is worth, just in city taxes? ($6,000/yr on a $200,000 house.) The high taxes are particularly hard on our elderly, trying to get by on fixed incomes. It is also a drag on future development, and a disincentive to companies that might otherwise locate in New Haven.
Of course none of that matters to the fire fighters, the vast majority of whom live outside of New Haven!