By Natasha Lee, Courant Staff Writer
November 5, 2007
STAMFORD - A shortage of volunteers, lax training, poor organization and layoffs of paid firefighters have not convinced some city representatives that Stamford's complex fire system needs work.
Some representatives said the city should back off its plan to move paid firefighters into volunteer fire stations. Others said they want more proof that the volunteer system has to be improved, and still others said more firefighters are needed but they're not sure the city's plan is best.
In Stamford, five volunteer firehouses operate independently of the city but do not have enough volunteers to operate without city-paid firefighters.
Since May, the city and volunteer chiefs of the Glenbrook, Belltown and Turn of River fire companies have been fighting for control of the firehouses. Management agreements between the volunteers and the city expire Dec. 4.
Mayor Dannel Malloy and Director of Public Safety William Callion have said the patchwork system of paid and volunteer firefighters - worsened by gaps in volunteer response to calls - jeopardizes lives.
Volunteer chiefs have not given the city information to refute statistics provided by the paid firefighters union that volunteers do not show up for calls or keep up with training.
City Rep. Robert "Gabe" DeLuca, R-14, whose district covers Turn of River and parts of Belltown, said he remains confident in the volunteer system.
"I don't like to make noise. A lot of times I just like to sit back," DeLuca said. "Just because I don't come out and voice my opinion to the paper doesn't mean I don't support them. I support them in the background."
Residents have not complained to him, DeLuca said, and volunteer chiefs have assured him they are doing a good job.
"Until I see there's been a drastic safety issue involving a house burned to the ground or people were killed - I haven't heard any stories like that, and therefore, I feel the system is working," he said.
City Rep. Carl Franzetti, R-14, who represents Belltown and parts of Turn of River, said he didn't have enough information to comment on the city's plan. He also would not comment on public safety concerns but said volunteers are valuable.
"Over the years, this has been going on back and forth," Franzetti said. "The volunteers do a great job and let me leave it at that."
On Nov. 15, seven months after the city announced its plan to move paid firefighters into volunteer firehouses, the Board of Representatives' Public Safety Committee will review it. But it's not being asked to vote on the plan.
Like DeLuca, city Rep. Arthur Layton, R-17, whose district covers Springdale and a portion of Glenbrook, said that sometimes it takes a tragedy for people to pay attention. He cited police training in the use of heart defibrillators as an example.
Nearly eight years after a police sergeant died of a heart attack while working at headquarters, the city last year bought defibrillators for the department and provided CPR training and recertification for officers, which had ended in 1988.
Layton said efforts should be made to recruit more volunteer firefighters but said no safety problem exists. If more paid firefighters are moved into the volunteer firehouses, property taxes would go up, Layton said.
City Rep. Rich Lyons, II, D-1, chairman of the board's Public Safety Committee, said that, as with the defibrillators, it would take a tragedy to fix the fire system.
"That's going to be the trigger point. A needless tragedy comes and everyone says, 'We told you. We told you, and we didn't react.' That's where we're headed, and that's what we don't want to see," Lyons said.
Two months ago, the paid firefighters union filed a complaint against the city and Glenbrook Fire Department after a Glenbrook firefighter injured his eye in a blaze. The firefighter battled an attic fire on Courtland Avenue alone for several minutes until volunteers and paid firefighters arrived.
Lyons questioned whether fire coverage was adequate citywide and hoped the meeting this month would provide answers. Representatives have not put the plan on the agenda because of the litigation between the city and volunteer fire departments, he said.
"I don't think now is the time for us to micromanage a 50-year battle between volunteer and paid firefighters," Lyons said.
Belltown and Glenbrook took the city to court to reinstate five firefighters who were laid off in July, which cut the paid staff by a third. One Glenbrook firefighter was rehired to fill a retirement. Turn of River went to court to prevent layoffs and won; the city is appealing despite a judge's order to seek mediation.
"If I lived in some of those districts, I wouldn't be satisfied with what I was getting with fire protection and fire coverage," said Lyons, who lives in the Cove. "I'm in the part of the city I would estimate responds in three and four minutes from the call to an engine on the scene. Other parts of the city, I'm not sure you get that."
Under the city's plan, 21 paid Stamford Fire & Rescue firefighters would be moved into Belltown, Glenbrook and Turn of River volunteer firehouses, increasing manpower to three or four paid firefighters per shift, up from one or two.
Callion said the plan would cut overtime costs at the three volunteer firehouses, which spent $700,000 on overtime last fiscal year. The plan also would cut eight vacant Stamford Fire & Rescue jobs, saving the city $545,876 in salaries. The plan would provide better coverage because the paid firefighters would be distributed more effectively, Callion has said.
The city came up with the plan after $850,000 was cut from the Department of Public Safety, Health & Welfare during budget season.
Volunteer chiefs said the city is trying to destroy their system. They agreed, however, that a decline in volunteer membership and lapses in training put the public at risk.
After first rejecting the plan, Glenbrook last month signed on. Former Glenbrook Fire President Edward Rondano said the department could not continue to operate with a diminished paid staff and low volunteer membership.
Volunteer chiefs submitted alternative plans to the city that they say would save money and increase staffing, but the city rejected all three.
Fire union President Brendan Keatley said budget cuts and politics have interfered with public safety.
"We don't dispatch other first responders this way. We don't say there's a domestic violence call in North Stamford, we'll just send one cop," Keatley said. "The city likes to play fast and lose with public safety."
Keatley has said standards for paid and volunteer responses should be the same. But the National Fire Protection Association sets faster response times for paid firefighters than for volunteers.
Some city representatives said standards should vary. Under the union contract and in accordance with association standards, Stamford Fire & Rescue responds to medical and fire calls with a minimum of four people on an engine. Volunteer firehouses don't.
City Rep. Joseph Coppola, R-15, a 47-year veteran of the Belltown volunteer department, said it is not necessary for four people to respond to a medical call, but said volunteers turn out in force for a structure fire.
"When you have a medical call, that takes two men. It doesn't take five or six or seven volunteers," said Coppola, a member of the Public Safety Committee. "When there is a structure fire, you get seven or eight or 10 people."
City Rep. Philip Berns, D-16, who represents Belltown and was a volunteer firefighter in Ithaca, N.Y., agreed that volunteers should be able to gauge their response based on the type of call.
"I think it's OK to cherry-pick a response if there's a cardboard box on fire in the Dumpster. It's perfectly appropriate to have one volunteer show up for it," Berns said.
The paid firefighters union has reported that, from July 11 to July 31, the Belltown fire district received 61 calls and an average of 1.3 volunteers responded per call. During that time, three of Belltown's seven volunteers had no medical training or expired credentials, the union reported.
For the same period, Glenbrook responded to 55 calls and an average of 0.72 volunteers showed up per call, the union reported.
Glenbrook and Belltown fire officials did not dispute the statistics, though last month Belltown placed a newspaper advertisement stating that an average of 6.5 volunteers responded per call from Aug. 12 to Oct. 5. It did not provide the number of calls for that period. It said an average of 10 volunteers responded to three fires in that time.
Coppola said the number of volunteers isn't enough but said volunteers are necessary.
"Am I going to make the volunteers look like heroes? No. The fact is this administration has had disdain for the volunteers from the day it took office. It's not a secret," Coppola said. "So now, because they think that we're weak, they're going to jump on us and stomp."
City Rep. Michael Molgano, R-15, who has pleaded to save the volunteers, said the city's plan doesn't make sense. Molgano represents Belltown and parts of Glenbrook.
"All I'm hearing is one-sided. It doesn't work. Even articles in the paper say it's going to save hundreds of thousands of dollars. How?" Molgano said.
Board of Representatives President David Martin, D-19, said he was "not deeply concerned at the moment about public safety. But I see potential for risk and I see potential for a long-run increase in cost or a diminishment of safety."
The city should not change the fire system until a study is complete, Martin said. In September, the city solicited bids for a consulting firm to analyze fire service.
"I don't necessarily know what all the facts are because the situation is complex," he said. "Lots of people are making lots of points."