Hialeah, Florida department strips paramedic gear from fire trucks. Chief calls it a misunderstanding following 'brainstorming' session.

A week after city leaders voted to cut fire department staffing by 40 percent, losing 105 firefighters by March, an apparent "brainstorming" session spun out of control in Hialeah, Florida. That session, according to Hialeah's fire chief, had the department's command staff looking for more ways to save money. One of those ideas was to remove paramedics and their equipment from city fire engines.

Somehow, something as vital as this, accidentally went from an idea to reality very quickly and equipment was removed yesterday. The details of how that happened aren't clear, but the reaction was swift. It not only caught the attention of the press, but brought an email from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief William Bryson warning nearby cities that Hialeah may be violating an agreement about not cutting services to the point where mutual aid is required on a daily basis.

In addition when the union president, Marco Pico, told reporters that tools were being taken away that could save someone's life, Mayor Carlos Hernandez called it a "scare tactic". So, if the union hadn't blown the whistle, how many believe the "misunderstanding" over the medic gear would have been corrected so quickly? Shouldn't the mayor and the chief be very concerned about a command staff that doesn't know the difference between a brainstorming session and an order?

The mayor and city council have already denounced the union for not making concessions to avoid the layoffs.

As Firegeezer pointed out last week, Mayor Hernandez promised that despite such a drastic reduction in staffing, services to the citizens wouldn't change (look at the article below if you don't believe the Geezer or me that he said that).

Here are some details about yesterday's debacle from The Miami Herald:

The Hialeah fire department stripped life-saving paramedic equipment — including intubation kits to help patients breathe and defibrillation pads to revive children — from its fire trucks Tuesday, only to undo the changes after what the city called a misunderstanding.

The move happened after fire department brass discussed the possibility of doing away with the equipment in the future to save money. That “brainstorming,” said Fire Chief Marcos De La Rosa, was incorrectly interpreted as an order to remove the equipment.

“As soon as I got word, I reversed the course and had those trucks stocked,” he said.

Above are last week's words of wisdom from Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez.