Dear Editor:
I read with some exasperation the news story of the complaints from the firefighter’s union about company closures and hiring freezes. As a citizen who is outraged about government waste, I am writing to complain of Mr. Cunningham’s timid half-steps and half-hearted measures in this matter. If he is truly concerned about budget deficits, he could and should be doing far more than what he has done so far. A one-hundred man reduction in firefighter personnel over the past 10 years is simply not enough. I have the greatest respect for fire fighters, but our public safety needs have changed.
The simple fact is we do not need nearly as many fire fighters as in the past. Modern building codes and building materials have made historic staffing levels redundant. This fact was brought home to me several years ago when a bank I worked at needed to build a “fireproof document vault” to house mortgage documents. I expected a disruptive building project with bricks and blocks and lots of dust. Instead, the builders created a freestanding room. The walls were sheet rock, about three inches thick. That was our fireproof document vault.
Sheet rock, the very same product covering most walls in Jersey City homes, is highly fire resistant.
For further proof that fire departments are overstaffed look at the companies themselves. Forty, 50 years ago, fire houses were busy places — emergency calls were frequent, fire fighters came and went all day long. Today fire houses are not nearly so busy. Today’s firemen have idle time unheard of in generations past.
According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, fire union officials across the country are seeking to forestall staff cut-backs by having fire companies assigned “first responder” duties.
At a public meeting recently, I had the opportunity to ask an official of the Jersey City Medical Center his opinion about “first responder.” He said they are opposed to first responder, they have ambulances pre-positioned throughout the county in order to swiftly respond to medical emergencies. There is no need for a pumper or ladder truck to be dispatched to the scene of a non-fire medical emergency. Those 9000 first responder calls the fire department answered last year? The sick and injured still traveled to the hospital in an ambulance. I refer to The Wall Street Journal again, which noted that in many cities with “first responder” fire departments, the fire truck and the ambulance arrive within seconds of each other.
Need I go on? From where I live, there are three fire houses within a 10-minute walk of my front door. Two of them date from a time when horses, not diesel engines, propelled fire wagons. My section of Jersey City is no exception. With 26 fire companies, many fire houses are less than a mile apart. The argument that there are too many fire houses and some of them should be closed or merged or relocated is not radical; it’s common sense. The people who oppose such actions are not disinterested public-safety experts but union presidents.
The proper action for Mr. Cunningham is clear; abolish first responder, restructure the fire department AND CUT OUR PROPERTY TAXES.
Your friend in Real Estate,
Kendall Sims