Woodland Firefighters Struggle To Retain 4th Engine Due To Cutbacks

United States (California) - With one of their four engine companies still poised on the city budget's chopping block, members of the Woodland Professional Firefighters Association took their fight straight to City Hall. Tonight, we're here to show you what we have and why we have it, said WPFA spokesman Eric Zane, before presenting 12 fully outfitted firefighters during Tuesday's City Council meeting, demonstrating exactly what is needed to respond to a major structure fire within Woodland city limits. "Everyone that is coming into this room is off-duty and doing so because they feel this is important."

After introducing each company, and outlining the various duties they complete when arriving at the scene of a fire, Zane took time to show council members

just how damaging the proposed cuts would be.

"Now, remove one company," Zane said, as three of the 12 firefighters present picked up their gear and walked out of the council's chamber, illustrating the effect that the proposed budget cuts would have on the department's ability to respond to emergency situations.

Zane said the elimination of the fourth company from an already under-manned department would severely limit their capabilities, noting that each responding engine company plays a vital and unique role when arriving on-scene.

"Now, what duties can't we complete?" he said.

While the proposed reductions would hinder several aspects of the department's operations, one of the most significant would be its ability to enter burning structures should it be unable to meet the Occupational Safety & Health Administration's minimum staffing requirements without aid from nearby departments.

As of now, OSHA requires the department to abide by a two-in-two-out policy, meaning for every two firefighters entering a burning structure, there must be two firefighters remaining outside of the building.

Zane said the containment of the April 18 structure fire at Sixth and Oak streets, as well as the successful rescue of the building's inhabitant, would have been impossible without the presence of all four of the department's companies.

While some believe the union's posturing conveyed an important and necessary message, others have called into question the legality of their methods, specifically the decision to stage such a demonstrate while in uniform.

According to California Government Code 3206, peace officers or employees of local agencies are prohibited from participating "in political activities of any kind while in uniform," criteria which WPFA members don't think applies to Tuesday's demonstration.

"We don't believe that we were being political," said WPFA President Mark Feuerstein. "We were simply trying to educate the council so that they could make a more informed decision."

With questions regarding the permissibility of Tuesday's events still lingering, it's clear the ramifications of closing a $5.8 million budget gap have begun to set in with those who have the final say.

"It might be a dollar-and-cents decision for you, and a difficult one at that, but please understand, it's a life-and-death decision for us," Zane said.

Written by The Daily Democrat

My Opinion

This seems like another struggle for another under-manned fire department. Everyday it's getting harder and harder to keep fire fighters with a career, and keep communities safe. Not only do we have growing threats, shortened response times because of many of the highly flammable materials in our homes and businesses, but now we seem to be doing them with less and less man-power. Just wait until the one day that a council member's house goes up and, not from any fault of the fire department, but they can't save any property, the structure, a pet, or heaven forbid, a member of that persons' family. Just because they are legally limited to not being able to go into a house because of the 2-in-2-out rule or physically limited as they are on another call and don't have anyone else, or a limited number of people able to respond. Check my next blog above and see what happens when you have limited man-power. It's situations like the "bean counters" are creating that are starting to give some fire departments a bad name because of response times, and "not being able to show up with the right man-power or equipment." It's not ALWAYS the fire departments fault. Personally, I'd rather have enough firefighters to protect my life and property, staying within guidelines, and have less guys working on this like repairing the little cracks in the roads or maybe even cutting back on some councilor's salaries. Who here is in favor of voting themselves a raise? That's what I thought.

Brad MacMillan