Worcester Fire Department’s Alarming Problem

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Walter Bird Jr., GoLocalWorcester Reporter

Worcester firefighters are slower in responding to emergencies than 10 years ago, but officials insist public safety has not been compromised.

According to a new report from The Research Bureau entitled “Benchmarking Public Safety in Worcester: 2012,” the Worcester Fire Department’s response time has slowed by 44 seconds since 2002 from 4:07 to 4:51. The times still fall within the four-minute recommendation by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), with a 2011 average response time of 4:51 Subtracting one minute for "turnout" time - the amount of time between the initial call and when the first truck leaves the station - the fire department has an overall response time of 3:51.

'The Chief's Response

The numbers in the report were hardly surprising, according to Fire Chief Gerard Dio, who said, “When you have a budget that is constantly shrinking, it was anticipated that our response times were going to be up.”

Ironically, Dio was scheduled to discuss his fiscal 2013 budget with city councilors Tuesday night.

The chief cautioned against reading too much into the response times, saying: “Numbers are numbers. You can make them say what you want them to say. You take every report with a grain of salt.”

Public Safety

As far as city officials are concerned, it is the opinion of the fire chief – and not statistics – that matter when it comes to whether public safety is compromised.

“The first responses have taken a hit, certainly, but I always defer to Chief (Gerard) Dio,” District 2 City Councilor Philip Palmieri said. “He says we’re still safe. I have the utmost confidence in his ability to know and understand public safety issues.”

Former Mayor and At-Large Councilor Konstantina Lukes acknowledged the constraints that have been placed on many public services as a result of a financial downturn.

“The demands on our budget have resulted in a lot of cutbacks,” Lukes said, before echoing Palmieri’s sentiment. “So long as the chief tells us the safety of the public and our firefighters is not jeopardized, we have to accept that.”

Stations Closed

Perhaps the largest contributor to longer emergency response times has been the closing of two engine companies, which was recommended under the city’s 2007 Redeployment Plan for the Worcester Fire Department. As a result, about two dozen firefighters were deployed to other firehouses, including those on Franklin, Grafton, Burncoat and Pleasant Streets. Dio at that time cautioned that response times would suffer, but in a February 2007 report to City Manager Michael O’Brien, he said they would not “increase beyond the requirements of the standard because more firefighters will arrive” with the responding fire companies as a result of the redeployments.

Deputy Fire Chief John Sullivan repeated those assurances at a meeting earlier this month with residents of Vernon Hill and Grafton Hill, many of whom were outraged by the plan to close an entire street to accommodate the CSX rail yard expansion project. Some, including Democratic state Rep. John Fresolo took the opportunity to slam officials for shutting down the Providence Street fire station, one of the facilities closed under the redeployment plan. At that meeting Sullivan acknowledged the response time from one station – Franklin Street – would increase, but would remain within the national standard. He also said other departments that would respond would not suffer any delay.

Safety Debate

Stephen Eide, senior research associate with The Research Bureau, said he wasn't he sure when asked whether the slowed response times equated to a public safety issue.

The fire department has told The Research Bureau the same thing it tells the public when it comes to slower responses: closing down firehouses didn’t help, but firefighters are still getting where they need to in the prescibed time limit. Eide also noted the debate some have had over just how important a quick emergency response really is.

“In terms of emergency response to medical issues, academics are very unsure about how much response time increases the chance of survival or the level of care,” said Eide. “There really is some debate over that. On the other hand, if you’re anybody who has had to call 911, response time matters a lot. That’s certainly a concern to the public.”

What matters most, according to Sullivan, is public safety and, in that regard, there has been no compromise.

“When we had to close two companies, we told the city there would be … a 30-40 second increase in response times,” Sullivan said. “We were dead on. But there is absolutely no jeopardy to public safety.”

Sullivan pointed out that under NFPA guidelines, the city is required to meet the national standard in response times at least 90 percent of the time and it does. There are, he acknowledged, areas of the city to which firefighters do not respond within the recommended amount of time, such as Salisbury Street and the far end of Lincoln Street.

“Ideally,” said Sullivan, “we’d love more manpower, maybe some new stations.”

Areas of Need

One potential site frequently mentioned is near the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, around Belmont and Plantations streets, an area Sullivan said has seen “significant growth.”

Palmieri said he would support a new station in that neighborhood. Sullivan also suggested a station in the Salisbury Street area near the Holden town line, although he conceded, “Given the economic times, that’s not in the cards.”

As for the Research Bureau’s report and what it means, Sullivan said 10 years is a large window and that a more accurate time frame would be five years.

“(Response times) pretty much leveled out three or four years ago,” said Sullivan. “Some of these statistics are relative. When you’re talking about a department that handles 31,000 calls a year, given the cutbacks we’ve had, I think our guys do a fantastic job of meeting the standard response times.”