By Eric Stirgus
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
 Photo Jamie Thompson Chief Kelvin Cochran spoke about budget challenges at Fire-Rescue International in Denver in August. Full Story |
ATLANTA — The Atlanta Fire Rescue Department is bracing for the possible retirement of about 250 firefighters over the next three years. Some say the departures could start as soon as next month.
Department leaders and supporters worry the retirements from the 977-employee department will mean fewer firefighters and longer response times for emergencies.
“That could have a tremendous impact on our services,” Atlanta Fire Rescue Chief Kelvin Cochran said in a recent interview.
William Rhodes, a retired Atlanta Fire Department assistant chief, echoed the chief. “It’s going to be very stressful on the Atlanta Fire Department and the city of Atlanta to lose that many people and maintain a high standard of quality,” he said.
Rhodes, now executive director of the Atlanta Fire Foundation, which raises money for the department’s public education efforts and equipment, said he didn’t want to sound like Chicken Little and suggest that the sky is falling. But he said, “If you can’t put enough people [on fire trucks] in a significant amount of time, we are compromising [firefighter] safety.”
Atlanta can fill the vacancies, but Cochran noted it takes about a year to hire and train a recruit.
The possible retirements come at a difficult time. The department was hit hard during budget cuts this year and 26 fire recruits were laid off. Fire Station 7, near the West End Mall, was closed.
Cochran said the possible departures were one of his biggest concerns when Mayor Shirley Franklin nominated him to be fire chief in November. He has created a leadership training program for firefighters.
The possible mass retirements would be the largest in recent memory, say Rhodes and Jim Daws, a department lieutenant and the head of the International Association of Fire Fighters, Local 134, the department’s union. These firefighters are approaching 30 years with the force and can retire with full pension benefits.
Daws has suggested the department approve a deferred retirement plan by which the city could pay firefighters to stay on the force without the city paying more money toward their pension benefits.
“That’s one way to keep them on the job,” he said.
City Council President Lisa Borders said she, too, is concerned about the retirements, but she’d prefer a long-term strategy of training younger firefighters to replace the ones who are leaving.
“The good news is [the retirements] will offer a significant number of jobs,” Borders said. “The bad news is you lose a significant amount of institutional knowledge.”
The large group is eligible for retirement over a relatively short time span because the firefighters were hired during a relatively short period around 1980.
Atlanta was prohibited by court order from hiring firefighters during much of the 1970s because of racial discrimination lawsuits filed by black firefighters and counter-suits filed by white firefighters. The lawsuits were settled in 1979 and the city began to fill the 268 vacancies that then existed.
Many of today’s potential retirees were hired shortly afterward.
The firefighters — most of whom are captains, lieutenants and senior leaders — are “the ones the younger firefighters look to for guidance,” Rhodes said.
Meanwhile, the fire department lags behind one national agency’s standard to respond to fire and medical emergencies.
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 department met that standard 70.5 percent of the time in 2007 for all fire calls, according to the city. And as of July 1, the department has met the standard 70.3 percent of the time for 2008.
In a recent interview, the chief said it is difficult to come up with a plan to deal with the potential personnel changes because officials don’t know how many firefighters will retire.
“Some of these decisions cannot be made until we know how many people are going to leave,” he said. “We have to forecast as best we can.”
Daws feels certain most of the eligible firefighters want to retire.
“They’re leaving,” he said. “They’re eligible for retirement. They’ve maxed out their pensions. They’re going to go.”
Copyright© 2008 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution