By Dennis Shaugnessey
Lowell Sun (Massachusetts)
Copyright 2006 MediaNews Group, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
DRACUT, Mass — Staffing at the Dracut Fire Department remains an issue, in part, because there are very few firefighters who are willing to work overtime shifts, according the Dracut Fire Chief Leo Gaudette.
Speaking before the Dracut Board of Selectmen recently, Gaudette said that on at least eight occasions, the district operated with as few as seven members because firefighters refused to come in when called.
“We could not get a member to work,” Gaudette said. “There were four times when we had to force someone to stay in order to keep the staffing at least seven members. Running shorthanded is not something that I or any other chief for that matter, wants to do.”
The department spent $414,584 in overtime pay last year. To operate at full capacity, which would be a 9-member crew dispersed at the three fire stations in town, Gaudette would have needed an additional $185,000 for overtime.
“But what you’re telling us is that it wouldn’t matter if you had a million dollars in the budget, members are refusing overtime and when they’re called to come in, they’re just not coming in. Is that right?” asked selectmen Chairman James O’Loughlin, a member of the board’s Public Safety Subcommittee. “If there’s a feeling that the town is not being adequately protected, we’d like to know why.”
Gaudette said that while it is not the ideal situation, there is no time when either the Collinsville, Jones Avenue or Central Fire Stations have run with fewer than two members at each station, as well as a dispatcher at the Central Station on Pleasant Street.
“In the past year I’ve received at least four phone calls at home from members ending their shift and telling me, ‘We’re going to have to close the station.’” Gaudette explained. “I asked, ‘Why? Did the roof cave in or something?’ They said, ‘No. We can’t get anybody to stay.’ I’ve had to say, ‘Well, tell the junior man congratulations because he’s staying an extra shift.”
Gaudette said that staffing problems occur when firefighters are out on disability or long-term illnesses, some for as long as 10 months.
“I just don’t have sufficient funds to replace all of those long-term absences at an overtime rate,” Gaudette told selectmen.
Union President Leo McMahon said that the Fire Department is a 24-hour, 7-day a week operation.
“We don’t close. Ever,” he said. “The bottom line is that when a member is out, for whatever reason, you either fill the shift or close one of the trucks down. The chief is right that we’ve never closed a station, but how many times have we had to shut down a piece of equipment?”
The issue of under-staffing has actually been a positive thing for the department, McMahon said.
“I think we are all saying the same thing, we are just coming at if from a different angle,” he said. “Nobody is saying that members are not here when they are supposed to be here. They are not here when they are not supposed to be here and sometimes they just cannot come in to fill a shift. The firefighters in this department come to bat. To imply otherwise leaves a bad taste in our mouths and could bring morale down.”