Absolutely not . . . And here I have to give proper credit to our new Chief of Fire and the rest of the Command Staff, there were a few things we were all united in opposing. First and foremost, no one loses their job. Second, no cutting staffing from 4-man crews to 3-man crews. I have said many times that if I only had a 12-man fire department I want three 4-man engines, not four 3-man engines. And lastly, we were opposed to "brown-outs" which basically guarantee that your next fire will be next door to the browned-out station, or to cobbled-together "combination" companies with adjustability but no clear mission. The successful fireground commander needs to know who's coming, where they're coming from, what they can do when they get there, and who's left. As a sidebar, in my opinion that's the hardest part for many volunteer fire chiefs - they can't know any of those things with certainty.
No, we decided that the safest and best plan for the Syracuse Fire Department to meet the required staff reductions and budget cuts was to reduce the number of fire stations we safely and properly staff. They will all continue to operate within our existing SOPs, and we had (and in fact still have) sufficient district overlap to maintain our ISO Class 1 rating. Yes, we will all be working harder because there will be fewer of us . . . And anyone, politicians especially, who says that these changes "will not effect" our operations is a liar. We are obviously stronger with one more fire station than without it, but that was not an option. Tough times call for tough choices, and we are confident that this plan will succeed because it must succeed. This is one case where that tired old statement is actually true:
Failure is not an option.
No, we decided that the safest and best plan for the Syracuse Fire Department to meet the required staff reductions and budget cuts was to reduce the number of fire stations we safely and properly staff. They will all continue to operate within our existing SOPs, and we had (and in fact still have) sufficient district overlap to maintain our ISO Class 1 rating. Yes, we will all be working harder because there will be fewer of us . . . And anyone, politicians especially, who says that these changes "will not effect" our operations is a liar. We are obviously stronger with one more fire station than without it, but that was not an option. Tough times call for tough choices, and we are confident that this plan will succeed because it must succeed. This is one case where that tired old statement is actually true:
Failure is not an option.
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