Buffalo Woes

[NJFFSA16]

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - Firefighters rallied outside City Hall
Monday to protest the closing of firehouses and layoffs of fire
personnel.
About 200 firefighters joined representatives of the Buffalo
Professional Firefighters Association in voicing their displeasure
with Mayor Anthony Masiello and the city's new financial recovery
plan, which would eliminate 150 fire department positions through
layoffs and retirement over three years, including up to 21 layoffs
as soon as March.
Masiello "has inflicted a plague upon this city," said Joseph
Foley, president of the 800-member BPFA. "We've pledged to each
other to fight this fight."
Under the controversial financial recovery plan, three fire
trucks will be eliminated from a current fleet of 11 trucks and 20
engines.
The nine-member state control board that is monitoring the
city's finances recently approved the recovery plan on Oct. 21.
"This rally is about the safety and well-being of the people of
Buffalo," said firefighter Mark Suggs. "For City Hall to take a
meat ax to the budget is unacceptable."
Various national and state fire associations also participated
in the afternoon rally. After 30 minutes, the congregation marched
en masse a half-mile to one of the fire engine stations that is
slated to be closed.
"We have to get the word out about what's really happening,"
said firefighter Scott Vitello of Engine No. 4. "If this goes the
way it's been going, citizens are going to burn and we're not going
to be able to do anything."
Last Wednesday, Masiello sent layoff letters to 87 city
employees, which was the first step in the city's four-year
recovery plan.
Currently, members of the BFFA are working without a contract.
"Unfortunately for the fire department, their leadership has
not served them well in terms of understanding the dynamics of this
fiscal reality," said Masiello spokesman Matthew Brown. "This is
not business as usual."
Waving signs that read "Masiello Attacks Firefighters" and
"Say No to Firehouse Closings", the firefighters said their
resolve will not be deterred.
"We're going to change our future," Foley said. "Together we
will put out this fire."

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[TCFire]

How this all plays out will be very interesting. Buffalo is an old wood frame city where a typical first alarm assignment for a single house fire can go to 3 houses and a multiple alarm in no time. The houses are so bloody close together that getting the jump on that first alarm is critical to keeping an incident under control. Buffalo FD does a great job protecting the city, I've worked downtown for 20 years. Unfortunately the City has had their collective heads up their a** for so long that they now literally don't have a pot to piss in. Every year it was beg for millions from Albany to bail out their budget deficit. Now Albany has said NO, get your house in order. BFD does have a big department from a manpower standpoint (close to 800), second only to FDNY in NY State, if I remember correctly. Buffalo PD got a sweet new contract that was slammed in just before the Control Board arrived, FD couldn't get one done and now they're paying for it. They want to build 5 new stations that are more centrally located in the city to replace some of the current stations (some of which date back to the late 1800's). I'll cross my fingers that somehow this is resolved without any BFD member paying the price for the past 40 years of political stupidity.

[rangerjim93]

That is why Masiello should be recalled from office and it can be done. If the Mayor of Perry tried that with our volunteer department, of which I am a member, abeit, support staffer handling administrative and other support chores, he would be run out of town on a rail. That goes for removing serviceable apparatus from service for no apparent reason. I think the movie, BACKDRAFT, though a work of fiction, has a great deal of truth to it as for the consequences of a politician pushing for fire department cutbacks in Chicago, leaving a first alarm assignment on its own to try to fight a multiple alarm fire without backup. Evidently Masiello thinks it would be far cheaper to kill a few men on the job rather than adequatly support his fire department in Buffalo. I very much fear it is going to be a matter of time.