Blackstone fire entering fourth year of staff-bolstering plan
BLACKSTONE — The Blackstone Fire Department is in the last year of a four-year plan to bolster its full-time firefighter staff by adding a firefighter to each of the department’s four two-man platoons or shifts for a total three-man system.
And while staffing levels is still not optimal, the addition of three full-time firefighters, as well as one more this summer, has resulted in minimal, but safe staffing levels, according to Fire Chief Michael J. Sweeney.
“After July of this year, we will have 12 full-time firefighters – 13 including myself,” Sweeney said during a preliminary fire budget workshop with the selectmen on Saturday.
The workshop is the annual kick off to the budget season and is typically held on a Saturday morning in January to review each department head’s preliminary budget recommendation for the upcoming fiscal year.
“We’re in the fourth year of a fouryear plan to put one additional firefighter on each shift. We’ve completed three years of that and we have the fourth year coming up in July,” Sweeney said. “As fire department standards and National Fire Protection Association standards go, our department is still considered understaffed, but it’s definitely at a comfortable level and the shifts that ave those full-time firefighters makes a world of difference.”
Sweeney sounded the alarm three years ago, saying the department was severely understaffed with full-timers. At that time, each of the the Fire Department’s four platoons carried only two firefighters. Those staff levels were not only inadequate for a town the size of Blackstone, which has a population of more than 10,000, but were also a violation of National Fire Protection Association standards.
In 2001, the NFPA published two standards that contain requirements for staffing career and volunteer fire companies. The minimum number of firefighters required for structure fires varies from 15 to 42 depending on the structure.
The NFPA periodically surveys U.S. fire departments to determine their needs. The latest survey, titled Fourth Needs Assessment of the U.S. Fire Service, confirms what the earlier ones found. Most fire departments have too few firefighters to be combat-ready.
Fire service leaders attribute their staffing problems to two changes that have occurred over the past decades. For career departments, the change is the cost of salaries and pensions in an era of fewer structure fires. Salaries and pensions account for over 90 percent of fire department budgets. City and town leaders looking to cut fire department costs demand that their chiefs cut staff, ignoring the fact that structure fires will occur and overwhelm understaffed fire companies.
For volunteer departments, the dwindling pool of candidates has left many of them hard-pressed to handle increased call loads, let alone the increased risks posed by synthetic furnishings and lightweight construction.
Sweeney’s plan of adding a firefighter to each of the four two-man platoons for a total three-man system, was approved by the Blackstone selectmen and Finance Committee and ultimately by town meeting voters. Sweeney’s fire budget for fiscal 2020 proposes a salary line increase to bring the fourth and final firefighter on this summer for the final phase-in.
“The Fire Department appreciates the the Board of Selectmen, Finance Committee and townspeople’s support in this endeavor,” the chief said. “It definitely makes a difference for us.”
Before the new hires, Sweeney said he was concerned the department may not get enough manpower on scene to knock down a fire before the entire structure is lost while waiting for mutual aid assistance from other town departments, a situation he called likely as new development comes in and the demand for fire and rescue services increases.
Sweeney says while the department has an effective mutual aid system involving other towns, there is no guarantee response times will be immediate and having more full-time firefighters provides a better level of car to the town.
“The two-man shift worked for small towns like Blackstone for many years, but the times are changing,” Sweeney said. “We need to start thinking about the future and what’s coming because the town is changing.”