Wilmington, DE Company Brownouts--Please Help

[Rob Pryor]

Thanks Tom.  As an update to this, the Chief has now closed Engine 6 until further notice, detailing it's members to other companies to fill vacancies.  This leaves about 13,000 residents in a very densely populated portion of the city without an engine company.  Engine 6 would have been the 1st due engine to the LODD fire on 9/24.  The closure of Engine 6 that night meant an additonal 2-3 minutes response time for the next closest engine company to respond.  In addition, the chief is now proposing that the 13 open positions on the department, soon to be 15, be eliminated entirely.  He is also asking the union to re-open our collective bargaining agreement to re-negotiate our minimum manning clause (an officer and 3 firefighters on each in service apparatus) and also our 24/72, 4 platoon shift.  This guy is either backed into a corner by the negative publicity and public pressure he is seeing and is trying to shift blame to the union; or he is doing the dirty work for the incoming administration.

 

http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news.../94606978/

 

http://wdel.com/story/78514-video-counci...wilmington