Brownout of Fire Station #21 will have citywide impact
by Joe Narkin

(Plain Press, November 2008) Ward 13 Councilman Joe Cimperman is concerned that the brownout of City of Cleveland Fire Station 21, located at Carter Road and Scranton Road in the Flats, will severely degrade the fire-fighting capability of the Cleveland Fire Department throughout the City. “The whole Fire Department in Cleveland is based upon a fail-safe system,” said Cimperman.

On Friday, October 10, 2008, the Cleveland Fire Department announced that Fire Station 21 would be immediately subject to brownout days due to budgetary and manpower considerations. Brownout means that the fire station would be closed on days in which fewer that 187 frontline firefighters are available for duty, but open on other days. Fire Station 21 is home base for Fire Engine 2 and the city’s only fireboat, the Anthony J. Celebrezze.

Although Fire Station 21 was subject to brownout last winter, both the community and Councilman Cimperman were surprised by the sudden implementation of brownout status for this winter season. “I learned about the closing through the press,” said Cimperman, who believes the Fire Department was bound by ordinance to provide more advance notification to the public and city council.

While fire companies have primary responsibility to fight fires and respond to other problems in the geographic area in closest proximity to their fire station, a fail-safe system is designed to ensure the entire Cleveland Fire Department can respond as a unit, efficiently and effectively, to catastrophic or multiple events.

Fire Station 21 averages 1,500 calls per year. While other stations average around 6,000 calls per year, Cimperman believes that, based upon location, Fire Station 21 is an essential element within the city-wide fail-safe protection system of the Cleveland Fire Department and it offers the best response time to areas such as Downtown, the Flats, Tremont, Ohio City, and other West Side neighborhoods. While the Fire Station is located in Ward 14, Cimperman believes that he needs to be fully involved with finding a solution to this issue because of the impact that a station brownout can have on both Ward 13 and the entire City of Cleveland.

Lt. Jim Hogan of Fire Station 21, speaking off duty, said he agrees with the Councilman. Even with Station 21 open, the Cleveland Fire Department fail-safe system would require maximum deployment in order to handle four simultaneous fires, said Hogan. “With one station down, we would be spread even thinner” in the case of such series of fire events, he said.

It is equally important for Cleveland, as a port city, to regularly staff the Anthony J. Celebrezze Fireboat as part of a fail-safe system, said Cimperman. Here again, Lt. Hogan strongly agrees. The fire fighters of Engine 2 are cross-trained to operate Fireboat Anthony J. Celebrezze and, when trained firefighters are deployed to other stations during brownout days, response time to emergencies requiring a water-based response would be critically impaired, said Hogan.

Hogan also said that the Great Northeast Power Blackout of 2003 was a time in which the fireboat could have played a vital role in responding to a fire emergency based upon its pumping power. During the blackout, the lack of power to water department pumps could have created a water crisis that would make it impossible to effectively fight a fire if power was not restored before water reserves ran out. Fireboat Celebrezze can pump 6000 gallons of water per minute to re-supply land pumper units and to feed a string of waterlines overland in the event of a fire.

While the Coast Guard has ample capacity to conduct search and rescue missions and missions requiring divers, they have “very limited fire fighting capability, “ said Coast Guard Chief Tom Owens. Referring to the water pumping capacity of the Cleveland Fireboat, he said, “We cannot come close to that.” The Cleveland fireboat and department divers have provided support to the Coast Guard on several missions in the past, said Owens.

Cimperman is exploring the possibility of securing funding for a new fireboat through Homeland Security and public/private partnerships such as exist in New York City and Chicago.  However, this “would not happen for 2 to 3 years,” he said.

The Cleveland Fire Department deploys 41 Fire Companies within 27 Fire Stations in the City (when Station 21 is open). The current city budget, however, provides funding for only 40 companies. Company 42 in Old Brooklyn was designated for closure, but was kept open in response to community concerns about the impact that the demolition of the Fulton Road Bridge would have on fire response times.

If the closing of one bridge can reverse a decision to close a fire station, Cimperman believes that Tremont and surrounding neighborhoods deserve the support of Fire Station 21 when “we are facing three bridge closings” (Columbus, Eagle, and the Innerbelt Bridge) as well as restricted access to the Abbey Road Bridge due to construction.

While there is significant concern in the community that the Ohio Department of Transportation may permanently close the Innerbelt Bridge for reconstruction, current lane restrictions, necessitated by unexpectedly severe corrosion of bridge supports, have greatly increased traffic congestion on surrounding roads. Congestion at peak traffic hours would likely inhibit response times from surrounding fire stations when Fire Station 21 is closed, according to Cimperman.

Using a hypothetical fire response destination of West 7th and Starkweather as a point of analysis, Fire Station 21 is 1.5 miles away and is unimpeded by bridge closings, road construction, and traffic congestion. The Fire Stations closest to this hypothetical destination are 1.8 miles away (Fire Station 4 at 3136 Lorain Avenue), 2.4 miles away (Fire Station 24 at 4316 Clark Avenue), and 2.9 miles away (Fire Station 20 at 3765 Pearl Road).

While the distance alone would increase response times during a Fire Station 21 brownout by between 120% and 195%, traffic and construction factors could increase response times to an even greater degree. If one or more of these stations were responding to one or more other fires, response time could be impaired to a critically significant extent, said Lt. Hogan.

“Time is absolutely critical in fighting a fire and a greater response time can be the difference between rescue and fatality, between saving property and cleaning up a mess,” said Hogan. The Station 21 brownout could also result in substantial increases in fire insurance rates for residences and businesses in the area, said Cimperman.

Cimperman recognizes that Cleveland Fire Chief Paul Stubbs is facing severe budgetary constraints and that it is up to the Fire Chief to make the final judgment regarding how to best allocate departmental resources. “But there is a hole now (in the fire department budget as well as in service capacity) and we will have to fill it in a way that is least harmful to the community,” he said.

Cimperman has asked Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell, Chairman of the City Council Public Safety Committee, to take up the issue of Fire Station 21 in order to develop and recommend possible alternatives to Chief Stubbs. He hopes that the matter will be discussed in a committee hearing in early November. One possible alternative would be to create a rolling brownout system in fire stations across the whole city, instead of just closing one, said Cimperman.

According to Lt. Hogan, Cleveland fire officials have said that one of the critical solutions to the budgetary crisis would be to reduce fire fighter sick time since the Fire Department cannot afford to pay overtime. Hogan has said that the fire fighters have been responding accordingly. WKYC, however, reported in August 2008 that seven department administrators earned more than $40,000 in overtime during times when Station 21 was browned during the 2008-2009 Winter Season. This is almost enough to pay a firefighter’s salary for a full year.

WKYC also reported that seven Assistant Fire Chiefs earned a total of $132,000 in overtime, an amount that would almost cover the salaries of three fire fighters during one shift for a full year. This figure does not include the costs of drivers for the Assistant Fire Chiefs. “Is it really necessary for the chiefs to have drivers? Is it really necessary for Assistant Fire Chiefs to come to every fire?” asked Hogan.

Hogan also says that studies have indicated that a merger of the Fire Department and EMS services could result in a $15 million annual savings to the City. Cleveland EMS has been plagued by a high employee turnover rate due to lower salary levels and tough working conditions caused by understaffing. This has resulted in an inexperience factor within EMS, said Hogan. Cleveland firefighters have the same medical response training as EMS workers, and, on most occasions, both a fire unit and EMS ambulance respond to medical emergencies, he added.

While the Cleveland Fire Department reports it costs between $1.0 and $1.5 million per year to keep a fire station open, Cimperman questions whether the brownout of a fire station should be based purely upon an automatic manpower formula. For each firefighter the Department is short (below a 187-manpower threshold) on any given day, the overtime cost for a replacement would be $400 per day, a cost that might be recoverable through other fire department allocation efficiencies, according Cimperman.

Cimperman strongly recommends that residents impacted by the brownout of Station 21 get actively involved in expressing their fire safety concerns and needs to city officials. Concerned residents can call the Mayor’s Action Line at (216) 664-3706 to express their support for the Save Our Station #21 Campaign to make their thoughts known.

(see related photo here)

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