Days after a fire that killed nine people at a Fall River assisted living facility, city officials said on Wednesday they plan to increase fire department staffing.
Fall River’s Mayor Paul Coogan said the city reached the decision after discussions with the city’s fire chief, members of the union and city officials.
“We’ve been going back and forth over how we can increase the count on some of our trucks,” Coogan said at a press conference, flanked by union leaders and fire officials. “So instead of having two trucks at the minimum standard by the fire safety commission, we’re going to go to six.”
Coogan’s announcement comes days after firefighter union officials said they could have saved more lives if they had more staff to respond to the blaze at the Gabriel House assisted living facility, calling out years of understaffing and lack of proper equipment for the fire department.
If enacted, the increase in staffing would raise the number of firefighters in Fall River to four firefighters on six of the city’s 10 trucks. This is still short of national guidelines set by the nonprofit National Fire Protection Association, which recommend four firefighters per truck. The standards are a minimum for safety, determined from a broad range of expert input, according to the association.
“We’ll be looking to 15-20 firefighters coming on ranks over the next two years,” Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said, adding that it takes nine months to a year to complete hiring and training of a new firefighter.
Until those new firefighters are hired, Bacon said firefighters would fill the gaps to raise staffing through overtime.
Coogan said a longer-term “goal” would be to get to the national standard level of staffing on all ten of the city’s firetrucks.
Ed Kelly, president of the international association of firefighters, who’d been sharply critical of understaffing at the city’s fire departments, praised the mayor for “stepping up and moving us in the right direction.” He also said he’d continue to push to get all 10 fire companies up to the national standard.
Bacon, who’d spoken emotionally earlier in the day about the “heroic” actions of the firefighters at the Gabriel House blaze, also praised the decision.
“That will allow us to effect faster fire suppression efforts, faster rescues and allow our firefighters to work safer which in turn makes every citizen of this city safer,” he said.
The additional staffing is expected to cost the city $1.5 million.
City and union officials said the lesson from the Fall River fire should be learned by others here in Massachusetts and across the country.
“The staffing issues in Fall River aren’t just a Fall River problem,” said Kelly. “The lesson here is we don’t want to have the conversation after the tragedy.”
