By Jill Harmacinski
The Eagle-Tribune
LAWRENCE, Mass. — They’ve delivered babies, re-started hearts and patched up the young and old alike.
But due to budget cuts, city firefighters have stopped responding to most medical aid calls indefinitely.
This reduction follows two firehouse closures and 10 firefighter layoffs last month.
It’s no secret times are tough and Fire Chief Peter Takvorian said it’s impossible for the department to do more with less.
The ranks of the fire department are so low now, crews must focus on their primary responsibility -- fighting fires, he said.
“Unfortunately, these are the kinds of compromises that have to be made in times like this,” Takvorian said. “We just don’t have the resources and manpower available to tie up pump trucks at medicals when we could have a fire starting somewhere. I do not want to be in a position where I don’t have resources available to send to a fire.”
Lawrence firefighters last year responded to 138 building and brush fires, and 2,728 medical aid calls. Already in 2009, firefighters fought 63 building and brush fires, and responded to 1,984 medical calls.
A three-tiered response normally pulls police, fire and an ambulance crew to a medical aid call. Without firefighters, only police and a Patriot ambulance crew will go to the majority of calls now. Paramedics from Lawrence General Hospital are also available to respond to life-threatening calls.
“When someone has a medical emergency, they will still get a response,” Takvorian said.
Firefighters will still respond to car accidents, including crashes where a victim is trapped and a Jaws of Life extrication tool is needed.
“Absolutely,” Takvorian said.
And Patriot Ambulance has assigned another ambulance crew to the city to help fill the void, Mayor Michael Sullivan said.
“They stepped right up to the place,” Sullivan said of the ambulance service.
Sullivan is not pleased the firefighters are no longer responding to medical calls, but pointed to the cash-strapped status of the city budget.
During his first term in office, the city bought the fire department specialized rescue trucks, purchases justified by the large number of medical aid calls firefighters responded to, he noted.
Most firefighters think they should be responding to the medical calls, “but right now that’s not our decision,” said Patrick Driscoll, fire union president, referring to Takvorian’s plan.
Many medical aid calls, such as a car accident with gas leaking, do present fire hazards, Driscoll noted.
“We are here to serve the city and we want to continue to serve the city with what we have left,” he added.
But the issue lies with the department’s three pump trucks firefighters use to respond to medical aid calls, Takvorian said. The department can no longer have a pump truck tied up at a medical call if it doesn’t have the resources to send another pump to a fire or other emergency.
“I can’t have that apparatus tied up on a medical,” he said.
Takvorian is not happy about the plan, but says economic reality trumps the vision he has for the department’s growth into the emergency medical services field. Fire departments that operate their own ambulances often generate revenue for their city or town.
“These were the calls that represent most of our runs ... This is where the department needs to get back to in the future. We should play a larger role,” Takvorian said.
It’s unclear when the firefighters can up the response again as the city’s immediate financial future appears very daunting.
Last spring, the city was saddled with a $2.38 million loss in state aid and an expected $10 million loss in similar aid this coming year. The current city budget may contain an $11 million deficit, a possible gaffe recently discovered by the state’s Department of Revenue.
With the exception of firefighters, municipal employees agreed to take 12 unpaid furlough days this fiscal year to cut costs and save jobs. Firefighters, however, rebuffed furlough plans pointing to 19 unfilled jobs they amassed in the past five years.
Long before the cuts, the firehouse closures and the pink slips, Takvorian said he spoke at community meetings about having to cut back on medical responses due to budget issues.
His decision, he reminded, “is totally dependent on resources.”
“If the financial picture brightens, we’d be happy to get right back to responding to medical aid calls,” Takvorian said.
Copyright 2009
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News