“When you're standing there with your gear and a hose full of water, and you can't go in because you don't have enough people, it's disheartening,” said Tompkins, who has urged city officials repeatedly to hire more paid firefighters.

Tompkins said both a lack of volunteers and ongoing staffing issues contributed to the problem.

The union long pushed to increase fire department staffing, as part of negotiations with the city over their contract, which expired in June 2006. The contract is now in arbitration.

Backup arrived minutes after the fire started, but Tompkins said even one minute makes a difference.

“Maybe we would have lost it anyway,” he said. “But at least we would have had a chance.”

The call came in at 12:28 p.m., said Chief Nicholas DeLia, and the initial units were on the scene by 12:33. By 12:38, a second alarm was called and more fire departments came to the scene. By 1:50 p.m., a third alarm was called, DeLia said.

Mayor Dennis L. Popp, who was handling fallout from the fire Wednesday, said, “This is not the time to be talking about (contract issues). People lost their home and a business.”

There were four firefighters on duty Wednesday afternoon, Tompkins said, but it still wasn't enough to send firefighters inside the building to fight a fire requiring the use of a hydrant. That takes a minimum of five, according to safety guidelines.

The union has asked that four firefighters be required per shift rather than the current three. That staffing request is based on the minimum standards of OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, according to Tompkins.

“That's the staffing they've been looking for,” said deputy mayor Paul Duarte. “They had a tremendous amount of mutual aid. It's not an issue of enough firefighters.”

Tompkins disagreed. “Given enough time, I can get 100 firefighters here,” he said at the scene Wednesday night. “It's the first five or 10 minutes that matters the most. This is exactly what we've been telling the city ... We don't have the help we need.”

Popp has said in the past that contract issues revolve around more than just staffing. He also has said that serious fires will happen, regardless of manpower.

Just two days ago, Tompkins reminded the City Council that it has been a year since more than a hundred of firefighters from around the state rallied at the municipal building. After the rally, Councilor Marian Galbraith had asked for an independent safety analysis to help resolve the issue of staffing. But the city's public safety committee decided to put off the study until arbitration was over, so it would not influence the process, Duarte said.

Tompkins told the council he feared arbitration would take six to nine months, and would not be done in time for the beginning of negotiations for the next three-year contract, in January 2009.

Galbraith said Monday she was disappointed that negotiations hindered the study, and that the staffing issue is tied to negotiations at all.

“We ought to know as a citizenry if what we're doing is the best thing,” she said.

Duarte said Wednesday he did not believe the recent fire was reason to “run out and do something.”

“We should not take an issue like this and use it to exacerbate a situation that's a little testy at the moment,” Duarte said. “It's just unfortunate we lost the building.”

Councilor Hubert “Fritz” Poppe said that though the union has implied that the city is “less than concerned about the safety of its citizens,” that isn't the case.

“Nobody is against making the right decision,” he said.

k.warchut@theday.com

j.wernau@theday.com

Staff writer M. Matthew Clark contributed to this report.