August 26, 2008
Public Forum
SouthTown Star Newspaper
John Ryan’s recent column about staffing in Fire Depts. across the Southland was very informative about the critical need of properly staffing area Fire Depts. While the graphic showed each town with the amount of firefighters that they have, I believe that a much more accurate picture to the dismal staffing can be shown by reveling each town’s minimum staffing requirement; the amount of firefighters that a town can guarantee to be on duty and respond to emergency calls. The Village of Dolton only has 4 firefighters on Duty at any one time, The Village of Riverdale has only 2 firefighters, the Village of South Holland has only 6 on duty. This is not only dangerous for the firefighters on duty but also for the Citizens in their community.
If a citizen lived in Chicago and their single family home caught on fire, a call to 911 would bring a total of 25 firefighters to the scene; 2 engine companies, 2 truck companies, and a squad. All staffed with 5 firefighters each. If you lived in the same house in Dolton, you would get 2 engines staffed with 2 firefighters each…4 firefighters total. Of course the Depts. will say that mutual aid would be coming in, if they aren’t on their own call and take a pass, and that would bring another 2-4 firefighters, for a total of 6-8 firefighters. This is appalling and the Citizens should be outraged that their safety and their property are at risk, and elected officials need to be held accountable for their actions for not supplying their citizens with the proper amount of firefighters. Is their life and property any less worthy because of where they reside?
Getting back to the article, Trustee Casella of Homewood, a firefighter for 32 years, stated that 6 firefighters are enough to handle most calls. I can not speculate as to what calls he has went on in 32 years, but none of them must have a been a house fire, because 6 firefighters on scene is woefully understaffed, and 6 firefighters CAN NOT do the job safely and efficiently.
There is no reason that Villages in the South Suburbs can not properly staff their fire depts. The citizens are paying taxes to be protected 24/7, the Villages need to follow through on their duty to protect them adequately.
Sincerley,
David DuVall
President, Dolton IAFF L-3766
