The San Gabriel Valley Tribune
MONTEBELLO, Calif. — The city’s Fire Department will take a fire engine carrying paramedics out of service most days this week because of an effort to limit overtime due to budget concerns, the interim fire chief said.
The engine station at Fire Department headquarters on the north side of Montebello was taken out of service Monday because of injuries and vacations, said Interim Fire Chief Jim Ballard.
He expected full staffing Tuesday, barring unforeseen circumstances, but said from Wednesday on, either the stations on the south or west side of town will be “browned out” or temporarily unstaffed.
The brown outs will be rotated through the city’s three fire stations, he said. No more than one engine at a time will be taken out of service, he added.
“We’ve developed a system so that each battalion chief puts a different company out of service, so they can plan,” Ballard said. “It’s not going to be easy, no matter what.”
Firefighters are going door-to-door delivering fliers alerting residents paramedics weren’t stationed in the north side of town Monday, said Craig Barker, Montebello Firefighters Association president.
Montebello Fire runs about 5,000 calls a year, or about 13 calls a day, officials said.
The city is facing a $4 million budget shortfall and last week announced tight limitations on firefighter overtime.
Police officers and firefighters worked about $3 million in overtime this fiscal year so far, according to city documents, and running the two departments costs about two-thirds of the city’s $48.6 million operating budget.
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