Nutter the Cutter.
As of 0800 tomorrow morning SEVEN companies of the Philadelphia Fire Department (5 Engine and 2 Ladders) will be put out of service. That means they will close, most likely forever barring unforeseen circumstances. These companies combine to respond to thousands of emergency calls every year. They protect large areas of urban city scape. And now 148 positions in our dedicated and proud department are eliminated.
The thousands of calls a year these companies responded to will now have to be picked up by perimeter companies like mine. That will add work to our already busy station. It will also force us to cover entire new areas much of it further away. My local for example has effectively doubled. We aren’t talking about farm land or wide open space either. We are talking about square miles of city blocks. It will be an insurmountable task to respond to this area.
But we have no choice. Because in Philadelphia in the publics minds of the public, saving fire companies takes a back seat to saving libraries. It is also a non story to the media. Very little in depth reporting was done on these cuts. What was said minimized the drastic effects of these cuts most likely to curry favor with the Nutter administration. The media failed the citizens of Philadelphia. EIGHT people have died in fires since these cuts were announced. Yet no one cares.
So as of tomorrow at 0800 the citizens of Philadelphia are much less safe and the job of the fire fighters just got a whole lot more dangerous.
Godspeed to the crews of:
Engine 1, Engine 6, Engine 8, Engine 14, Engine 39, Ladder 01, and Ladder 11.
You proud history’s of dedication and service to the life saving work you so bravely performed will stand as an eternal testament of what good men can achieve in the face of adversity.
See you on the Fire Ground.
FIRST IN 
Here’s a question to ponder. When the fire deaths climb in the areas of the closed companies, can we charge Nutter and Commissioner Ayers with involuntary manslaughter?
[…] he actually did it, and there is little – if any – uproar from the media. Unbelievable. Captain America has been all over this story. PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) – Five Philadelphia fire engine and two ladder companies said their goodbyes […]
O.K. Wyatt suggested I ask this question of you, since I’ll admit, I’m a bit confused.
They claim they will save close to $10 million in overtime by closing these companies, but they plan on reassigning all the firefighters somewhere else. So where is all this saved money exactly coming from?
Lost: It’s not surprising that your confused. That was Nutter’s plan all along. Most in the public don’t have a clue so I’ll explain.
The Fire Department needs about 450 guys City Wide to staff every truck in every firehouse. Thats for every shift. There are four shifts A,B,C & D. (24-7-365). We man about sixty stations so divide 450 by 60 and you get some idea how many guys are in each station.
Now every shift was undermanned. Department wide we were short about 150 men. So every shift we made up the difference with overtime. Maybe thirty guys city wide. The city actually loved this arrangement for years as overtime is cheaper than hiring because there are no benefits when paying OT. They saved a bundle.
Now Nutter just ELIMINATED seven trucks that no longer need to be manned. (about 150 spots) over four shifts. They took those guys and filled every vacancy we have and still had a few guys left over for a while. We are a smaller Department now by 150 spots. Seven neighborhoods lost most of their Fire Protection because of it.