By Eric Stirgus
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATLANTA — Atlanta fire Chief Kelvin Cochran said Wednesday his “brownout” strategy of temporarily shutting down ladder trucks at some stations to cut costs will continue until the city is on stronger financial footing.
“When revenue is restored. . . and we’re able to hire people we laid off and we’re able to institute relief days for our firefighters, that will increase staffing and brownouts will no longer be necessary,” Cochran told reporters.
Some city leaders are worried about the plan, fearing it will lead to slower response times to fires and medical emergencies. “It’s going to put a lot of stress and pressure on our [firefighters],” Atlanta Councilman C.T. Martin said during a meeting of the council public safety committee on Tuesday.
Cochran has conceded the plan could increase some emergency-response times, but he stressed any delays would be minimal. Calling the temporary shutdowns “brownouts,” is a reference to a partial loss of electrical power, but not a full blackout.
He said brownouts could be as brief as 24 hours or as long as 48 hours. The brownouts are likely to take place during periods when large numbers of firefighters are either on vacation or sick, such as around Thanksgiving and Christmas and during the summer.
Atlanta, like most major cities, is grappling with deteriorating finances. The city had a $41 million budget deficit for the fiscal year that ended June 30. It cut services, laid off employees and decided not to fill more than 1,000 jobs and raised fees to cover a $140 million shortfall before adopting its current 12-month budget, which began July 1.
The Fire Department was not spared the budget ax. With its budget cut from $86.8 million to $73.8 million, the department laid off 26 fire recruits and closed Fire Station 7, located near the West End Mall.
Cochran said the brownout plan is in response to the cuts and to avoid overspending its overtime budget, which he said is approximately $2.6 million.
The overtime budget for the 12-month budget cycle that ended June 30 was $5 million, the chief said.
The National Fire Protection Association calls on fire departments to respond within six minutes to a fire or medical emergency call at least 90 percent of the time. The standard allows a minute for a 911 dispatcher to take the call, another minute for firefighters to suit up and four minutes for the first unit to arrive.
The Atlanta Fire and Rescue Department met that standard 70.5 percent of the time in 2007 for all fire calls, according to the city.
As of July 1, the department has met that standard 70.3 percent of the time for 2008.
Copyright 2008 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution