“I’m not blaming the firefighters - it’s not their fault - but the fact is we have a $200,000 shortfall,’’ said Fiorentini. “We need to come up with that money somewhere. I don’t have an oil well in back of City Hall. The most logical place for it to come from is this department.’’
The mayor has put the Fire Department on notice.
The city, he said, intends to take its rescue truck out of service or reduce the manning on the vehicle until the deficit is remedied.
Gregory Roberts, president of Haverhill Firefighters Local 1011, said neither option is feasible.
Shutting down Rescue 1 or reducing the number of firefighters assigned to it “would compromise the safety of the firefighters and the citizens we are sworn to protect,’’ he said.
Rescue 1 is housed at the Water Street fire station and is staffed around the clock by three firefighters. The truck is deployed on search and rescue missions, and contains all of the tools required to free people from a vehicle, including the Jaws of Life, as well as equipment needed to fill firefighters’ air tanks, Roberts said. It was not clear last week how the rescue truck’s equipment would be transported to fires and other emergencies in the event that the vehicle is retired.
“Having that apparatus at the scene makes it possible for us to meet’’ national fire safety standards, said Roberts, a 12-year veteran of the department who worked his way up the ranks, from dispatcher to lieutenant.
He said the mayor has long been aware that the Fire Department faces systemic budget woes. For years, Roberts, who served as the union’s treasurer for two years before becoming president of the local, has been calling on the mayor and City Council to fill vacant positions within the Fire Department. Local leaders have been slow to respond, he said.
“For three years, we’ve been bringing this up,’’ Roberts said. “Nobody wanted to address it.’’
