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WDIV-TV coverage (note anchor refers to Dennis Archer who was Detroit mayor a decade ago)
Monday arson spree
Listen to fireground audio from early Monday morning
Listen live to DFD
UPDATE Tuesday morning - There were more suspicious fires this morning on Detroit’s east side. WDIV-TV looks at that and the plan to go from 14 investigators to 9 (previously it had been 19)
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing says he’s laying off 164 city firefighters by the end of July.
The mayor made the announcement Monday, but also said he expects the city will get a federal grant to fund and restore 108 of the positions.
And Bing says many of the remaining 56 firefighters will be recalled through attrition.
Bing’s announcement comes just hours after firefighters fought about 16 fires on the city’s east side overnight and early morning. One firefighter was injured in one of the fires. Fires were reported in mostly vacant buildings in the areas of Moran and Medbury, Mt. Elliot and Warren, Hancock and McDougall, Erskine and Chene and Chene and Ferry.
The fire department has 1,257 employees, including 881 firefighters and 248 EMS technicians. According to the city, the department responds to 30,000 fire calls annually, plus 135,000 EMS calls.
First of five parts of fireground audio from early Monday morning.
In responding to Monday’s layoff announcement, Dan McNamara, President of the Detroit Fire Fighters Association, fired back saying, “These decisions are indefensible”.
“Mayor Bing is now calling for $23 million in cuts from the Detroit Fire Department. In the agreement they backed out of, we proposed up to $31 million in real savings including significant give backs and necessary restructuring, with no layoffs and only closing six fire companies permanently”, said McNamara.
McNamara hopes the city reconsiders the layoffs because he says Detroit’s Fire Department is already a couple hundred fire fighters short of what should be their minimum staffing level.
“We used to tell everybody in the city that if you call us we’ll be there and we don’t know if it’s going to be that way anymore,” said McNamara.
“In fact, if you want a good city — a city where people are gonna live, people are gonna recreate, people are gonna visit you have to have them know they’re safe,” he said. “And with the reductions with us, EMS and fire, it’s just not going to be seen that way.”
Statement from Mayor Dave Bing:
Since I became Mayor, I’ve made public safety my top priority and I’ve said I would protect the jobs of police and firefighters, but fiscal realities have made this untenable.
With my administration continuing to work to fiscally stabilize the City and with recent cuts to the City’s budget, we’re announcing the layoffs of 164 Detroit Fire Department firefighters by the end of July. But my administration has every expectation of being awarded a federal grant to fund and restore 108 of those positions. And many, if not most, of the remaining 56 firefighters are expected to be recalled to the fire department through attrition.
The current 2012-2013 budget also allows for the hiring of Emergency Medical Technicians to bolster the number of EMS staff who responded to 135,000 calls each year, or 81% of the calls to Fire Department.
Until the Fire Department receives the grant, Commissioner Don Austin and his staff have developed a plan to effectively and efficiently maintain the highest levels of fire service for the city’s citizens.
Among the components of the plan:
- Better deploying engines from adjacent sectors and using newly installed GPS systems in the engines and rigs to best dispatch fire department personnel;
- Conducting thorough risks/gain analysis of interior versus exterior fire suppression;
- Increase the use of CERT & Fire Corps to support our firefighters;
- And continuing our community fire prevention education.
Again, laying off any of our courageous and dedicated public safety personnel is the last thing I want to do at this point, but I have to face this hard reality. I have every confidence in Commissioner Austin and the men and woman of the Fire Department to maintain their highest standards of fire services and public safety for our citizens.
Do you want to sell a rig? Click HERE to find out how with SellFireTrucks.com.
Also on STATter911 …
- UPDATED: Detroit sends out order closing 15 fire companies. 200 firefighters to be demoted. – July 2, 2012
- ‘When seconds count, we’re only minutes away’. TV reporter Charlie LeDuff gives a status update on the Detroit Fire Department. – January 22, 2013
- Detroit reporter Charlie LeDuff at it again. Finds donated tower unused & Highland Park’s mayor begging for it. – May 8, 2012
- Detroit stories: Report claims 21 minute response time to house fire. Also, fire inspections years behind. – January 21, 2013
Comments
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I wonder if Bing has considered just closing the entire department? Just think of the millions that could be saved that way?
And the Local in DC might ought to be happy with a few brownouts, obviously it could be worse.
Mark, brownouts are not justified with a 200 Million Dollar Budget Surplus, Can’t compare the 2.
Let it burn brothers in Detroit you have people to stay safe for, just let it burn.. A sad sad time in the fire service, we keep doing more with less and eating the shit sandwich they keep handing us because that is the kind of guys and gals we are but it is at the breaking point in my opinion. I have no idea how, when it is going to end or change but it is very sad. We have a saying at my job “the right person just has not died yet”, be safe.
So the union proposes 31 million dollars in savings and cuts with no layoffs, which is 8 million dollars more than the cities cuts with layoffs? What am I missing? Is the union proposal all smoke and mirrors, or is the city laying people off just for the sake of getting the SAFER grant? This way, those positions are paid for with federal money instead of “Detroit money”. Brothers and Sisters in Detroit, stay safe, do your best to go home to your families.
Chief,
My dept. passed an early retirement incentive plan for the same purpose. They “eliminated” the jobs to then make “new” positions for a SAFER grant. More than a half million that didn’t have to come from local property tax bills. This was before Federal money could be used to prevent layoffs, but it was still a shell game in my opinion. Our complement of staffing was reduced for 6 about months, there were extra brownouts and there were never any new jobs, just refilling the same ones we let go.
Thanks Jason. That seems to be the “shell game” many municipalities are playing. The sad thing is, it appears many of our residents don’t care and I fear it will take a tragedy in many places for the average person to care. But, the FD’s, no matter how short staffed or under equipped keep answering the call. It is just what we do. Stay safe Brother.
Insane!
Layoffs are never good, but really, layoffs in the DFD.
Mayor Bing needs to layoff the crack pipe.
kinda like being a 3rd class passinger on the titanic and you just got permission to come on the deck and all the lifeboats are gone eh?
My 2 cents from Calif.
Charlie Le Duff revealed a few weeks back that$16 Million Dollars was being spent for a New Fire Police Building, while FF’s
were living and working in Stations with bad sewer pipes.
$16 Million Dollars could be better spent through out all of the City Departments rather than flushed down the Drain as it is now.
Detroit wants a handout from the Feds to bail them out of the hole they dug themselves into. Detroit (like many cities in the US) is taking full advantage of the convenience of the recession. Yes, I said “convenience!” They are simply shifting the blame for decades of mismangement and corruption off of themselves and onto the economy at the expense of public safety and public education. Same story, different town. Now, FEMA has a gun against their head. They know that if they don’t give Detroit a grant, the city will literally burn to the ground. The trade off is, some other town that also needs that money will get passed over because their money is going to Detroit now since its such a high profile situation. Thanks Mayor Bing and City of Detroit for holding the SAFER Grant program hostage and using it to your full advantage. Maybe you shouldn’t have waited until DEFCON 1 to ask for help!!
There is nothing good about laying off people in Detroit.Heavy workload with fewer people equals more injuries.Of course the citizens sufferplenty.
There is no true answer to the Detroit issues.It’s like throwing a bandaid on a bleeding trauma patient.The grants only slowdown what is inevitable.The state will take over the city and try to do something positive.
I have my doubts .
Be safe brothers and sisters.Chief Austin you have my sympathy
Detroit needs to think outside the box. How about calling the off-duty Baltimore City Battalion Chief who brought his volly rig and crew into the city and see if he can muster up another crew to head to Detroit to “help out”. I’m sure his brothers in Detroit would appreciate it, right?
I am a supporter of the grant program,I have seen it do good things, however I heard a politician ask the other day why it is the responsibilty of someone from say for example New Hampshire, pay for a fire truck or hire firefighters in Michigan or Arizona. I personnaly cannot explain why the federal government should do that. I know cities like Detroit are in bad shape as are the small rural towns near me. Can we continue to bail out everyone who is having a bad time? At some point the well is dry. Anyone got a good reply to his question?, I’m sure he’s not the first one to ask that.