Fire Chief, Union Debate Broken Hydrants

One hundred and twenty six fire hydrants across the city are currently out of service.

Does it matter?

That question sat at the center of two dueling press conferences held Thursday.

At the first, Local 825 President Patrick Cannon and union Vice-President Daniel Del Prete raised the alarm across the street from Roberto Clemente Academy at Howard Avenue and Columbus Avenue in the Hill. They argued that the Elicker administration has let city fire hydrants fall into disrepair, and has not hired mechanics and upper-level supervisory positions quickly enough to keep residents and firefighters safe.

At the second, Fire Chief John Alston responded outside City Hall. The city has over 2,600 fire hydrants citywide, he noted. Fire trucks carry 500 gallons of water and have 1,000 foot-long hoses. The department tracks closely which hydrants are working and which aren’t, he said, and it’s working hard to file vacant upper- and lower-level positions.

“Your local leadership, your politicians have failed you,” Cannon said at the first press conference, addressing all city residents. ​“They’ve failed us. They put our lives and your lives and your children’s lives at stake. We will not stand by anymore for this.”

“We are aware of where they are and the impact they have on operations,” Fire Chief John Alston said at the second press conference about the currently-down hydrants. ​“Every truck carries enough water to get the initial fire fight started. All of our members are updated in real time [as to which hydrants are working.] And [fixing these hydrants] is a priority.”

Mayoral challenger Karen DuBois-Walton echoed the fire union leadership’s position in a release issued Wednesday afternoon, calling it a ​“life-and-death matter”: ​“Not only do so many of our residents have to go to bed at night worrying about gunshots – now they have to worry whether life-saving equipment and staffing is sufficient in the case of a fire. Failure to maintain basic public safety tools and to fully staff the fire department are not just budgetary questions – it puts people’s lives at risk all across this city every day and night.” She called for an assistant fire chief of operations, ​“fully staffing the department including Advanced Life Services, and investing in fire infrastructure.”

“Keeping residents safe is my top priority,” Mayor Justin Elicker added in a separate phone interview with the Independent Thursday. ​“I work closely with my team to ensure that there is adequate Fire Department coverage, and I work to support the chief in ensuring that he has the resources that he needs.”

Union: Too Many Broken Hydrants, Vacant Positions

Standing in front of a fire hydrant covered in cracked yellow paint and apparently missing the piece necessary for the connection of a fire hose, Cannon and Del Prete said that this particular hydrant at Howard and Columbus has been out of service since October 2019.

And it’s not the only one.

Cannon and Del Prete said that 126 hydrants across the city are currently out of service. That’s up from 91 out of service in October of last year, they said.

“For over a year, this administration has ignored the rise of failing hydrants and an aging fleet of vehicles,” said Del Prete.

So why are so many fire hydrants out of order? And what, from the fire union’s perspective, would fix this problem?

Hire more mechanics and fill leadership positions that have been vacant for too long, Cannon and Del Prete said.

“This administration has failed to permanently assign high-ranking positions vital to public safety along with having only one mechanic in place for a long time,” Del Prete said. ​“We have been struggling along and told they were going to test and hire more, but here we are.”

They called on the city — including the mayor, the alders, the fire chief, and the fire commission — to prioritize hiring a new assistant chief of operations (to replace Mark Vendetto, who retired from that role earlier this year), a new permanent fire marshal and drillmaster (both are currently filled by acting personnel), and at least three more mechanics.

“Test and fill the positions,” Del Prete said. ​“Do what’s right.”

Who exactly is responsible for hiring, say, the assistant chief of operations? Who has final say over who’s hired when?

“The mayor runs this city,” Cannon replied. ​“The mayor needs to get involved” and make sure that the fire commission and the fire chief are acting promptly to fill vacant positions.

Both fire union leaders also criticized the Board of Alders for cutting new captain positions and a lieutenant position from next fiscal year’s city budget.

Fire Chief, Mayor: 95% Of Hydrants Work Well

Outside of City Hall Thursday afternoon, Alston responded point by point to the fire union’s critique.

First he confirmed that roughly 125 to 130 fire hydrants citywide are currently out of service.

“Out of a system of about 2,600 hydrants, that less than 5 percent” that aren’t working, he noted.

With only one mechanic currently in the department’s ranks, the city has to prioritize which hydrants get fixed and when, he said. He said that the department has issued employment letters to two new mechanics, who should be coming on board soon — and should be able to expand the department’s reach when it comes to fixing broken hydrants.

“We inspect the hydrants twice a year,” he continued. ​“We also enter that [information] into a real-time database.” Every fire truck that travels carries an electronic tablet with information about which hydrants are working, which are not, and which working hydrants are within 150 and 300 feet of a broken one.

Furthermore, Alston said, every fire truck carries 500 gallons of water. ​“Five hundred gallons of water utilized judiciously will put out the average fire.” And the new pumpers the city is buying carry 750 gallons of water each.

Finally, he said, each truck carries a hose that’s 800 to 1,000 feet in length. That leaves plenty of room to get to a hydrant 300 feet away.

“The Fire Department has a robust system of redundancies to ensure there is always coverage around the city when there is a fire hydrant that is out,” added Elicker. ​“They have a computer system that identifies when a fire hydrant is out when firefighters are on the way to a fire. The chief assures me that there is no lack of coverage at this time period.”

Both Alston and Elicker said that the city is close to hiring a new assistant chief of operations for the department. That position is no longer part of the fire union, Alston said.

The city is down to four candidates for that position after conducting interviews a week and a half over. All four candidates are ​“capable,” Alston said, and will go through a second interview process next week.

Elicker said the same. He said that the Fire Commission will be meeting next week to finalize its pick for the new assistant chief.

He also said that the city was close to finalizing a new hire earlier this spring — but then the Valley Street fire happened. That fire killed one firefighter, Ricardo Torres Jr., and left another, Lt. Samod Rankins, seriously injured and hospitalized.

“That delayed the hiring process. We needed to make sure we responded appropriately to the tragedy,” Elicker said.

Westville Alder Adam Marchand — who introduced a successful amendment removing the four new Fire Department leadership positions from next fiscal year’s city budget — said he and his committee colleagues were unconvinced by the administration’s argument this budget-making season that those positions are must-adds to the general fund.

He said he and his colleagues are open to hearing the administration’s take next fiscal year on why those positions might be necessary. But from what he recalled from this year’s Finance Committee budget hearings, no one from the Elicker administration or the fire union made convincing arguments for why these new proposed permanent positions had to be created, he said.

Alston responded during Thursday’s presser that those four new positions were the result of negotiations between the former mayoral administration and the union. He said that he can think of other ways to spend the money that would have gone to those new hires but, per the memorandum of understanding inked with the union in 2019, he had to put those positions in the budget.

Click on the videos below to watch the full fire union presser and the fire chief’s response.