DETROIT – There are questions being raised about issues at the Detroit Fire Department. There are not enough vehicles, rigs are missing equipment, and firefighters are concerned.
There are six squads for the city of Detroit. Two of them are broken and crews are outfitting other engines to serve as squads -- but those other engines don’t have enough room to hold all the equipment.
Sources reached out to Local 4 Investigator Karen Drew on Wednesday about the issues at the department. Firefighters are upset and the situation is putting lives at risk.
Detroit firefighters were not allowed to speak with Local 4, but a union representative was able to provide details about a rescue that happened a few weeks ago. In that situation, firefighters arrived at the scene and did not have all the necessary equipment.
“They sent squad 5 somewhere and when it got there, they had to say send us another squad that had some of the equipment on it,” the representative said.
Over the weekend, the tire on Ladder 23 came off while driving. The same thing happened to another fire truck in February, according to the union representative.
Detroit Fire Fighters Association president Tom Gehart said the city isn’t telling him anything.
“They’re like, ‘Hey we’re getting it fixed, it’ll get fixed.’ You know, ‘that can’t happen, that shouldn’t have happened,’ blah, blah blah. It’s the same rhetoric,” Gehart said.
The Detroit Fire Department released the following statement:
”Squad 1 and Squad 5 are in the shop for repairs and, according to our vendors, should be back in service by the end of the week. We recognize that the fire engines currently being used by Squads 1 and 5 do not have as much storage space as their usual Squad vehicles. This is not ideal, but it is temporary. The Squads in our fleet were designed to carry all of the equipment issued to each squad company, and they do. We currently have specs for the purchase of some replacement squads that have been approved by our fleet steering committee. We are told that financing should be in place and bids should be out for these new vehicles by the end of the year.”