Holyoke Fire Department Sees “Brown-outs” HOLYOKE, Mass (WGGB) — Big cuts ahead for the City of Holyoke’s Fire Department, one that will leave the city without two of its medical trucks and one fire engine unit. ABC40’s Lindsay Iadeluca found out why the cuts are being made, and how the city is prepared to compensate for the losses. As of 7:00 am Friday morning the Deputy Aide, one engine unit and two medical trucks will be “Browned out.” A “brown out” occurs when a piece of apparatus is temporarily taken out of service when minimal staffing levels are not maintained. This has caused concerns for many in amount increases in response times. “We are really in a tough, tough fiscal position in the city,” Linda Vacon, Holyoke financial and city councilor told ABC40. “We need 88 firefighters for full staffing. Our current numbers are 78 and we have 9 in the academy. This brings the number down further so we’ve been supplementing with overtime,” President of the Local 1693 Holyoke Firefighters Association, Christopher Butler said. An order for an additional $200,000 in overtime funds was requested by the firefighters but the council members say the money just isn’t there. “None of us would be looking at any of this but we really are against the wall with economics,” Vacon said. “One of my concerns is going to be the little tactical trucks that cover medical stuff class5 ambulance some of the equipment we have won’t be going to medical calls anymore,” Butler said. Supplies like Narcan, Epi-pens and Glucose will now come from the responding ambulance services. “It’s definitely a risk to the public could be a matter of life or death seriously,” Butler urged. “It is really important and excellent that we’re taking care of the front line and having state of the art responses to things, but when we’re in a real tough situation we need to focus on the core mission which is putting out fires and preventing fires,” Vacon told ABC40. The city is only half way through the fiscal year and they only have about $800,000 left which Vacon says is tight for them and will probably cause them to make more difficult budget cut decisions in the future. Vacon also added the city has had excellent relationships with neighboring communities in the past and hopes they will help in certain situations for minimal response times. She also has faith in their partnering ambulance service, AMR to provide proper medical attention and supplies.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 04:09:34 +0000