Boston closeing firehouses?

[dfdex1]

Another explorer who's uncle works at Ladder 23 in Boston. He said that BFD closed 3 houses. Anyone know the details?

[Bones42]

It's on Firehouse.com now. Apparently, due to having 130 guys call in sick over 4th of July, they had to close some houses to keep adequate staffing at others. Union claims there were really that many sick, city claims it has to control overtime spending. Same old story..yada yada yada. At least, that's what I got out of the article.

[NJFFSA16]

Not much to the story.....so far

(Boston-AP) -- Eighteen Boston firefighters have reportedly been
suspended and 48 others given official warnings in a crackdown on
alleged abuse of sick leave policy.
The issue came into focus this week when Boston Fire
Commissioner Paul Christian ordered several fire stations closed
during the daylight hours, saying the department could no longer
afford the overtime to keep the stations fully staffed.
New figures released by the fire department show the total
number of sick days taken by firefighters more than doubled in the
first full year of a new contract with the city. That contract --
signed by Mayor Tom Menino in 2001 -- granted firefighters 15 paid
sick days per year. Prior to that, the fire department had no
specific sick leave policy.
Over the recent Fourth of July weekend, 130 Boston firefighters
reportedly called in sick.
The union representing firefighters denies that the sick leave
policy is being abused and accuses the fire commissioner of
jeopardizing public safety by closing down stations.


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