By Alexandra Sanders
The New Haven Register
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The Board of Aldermen’s Public Safety Committee listened to the fire chief explain his decision to retire a fire engine before hearing comments Wednesday night from residents mostly opposed to the move .
At the City Hall Aldermanic Chambers, Fire Chief Michael Grant said he plans on taking Engine 8 out of service from the Whitney Avenue fire station, leaving one fire truck at the station, and adding two “advanced life support units,” at Whitney and Fountain Street. He hopes to implement these changes by late summer or early fall.
“We will look to have 11 companies and four support units,” said Grant. “Since 2008, we have had a 20 percent decline in calls for service and a 50 percent decline in calls for structure fires.”
There were 28,000 calls in 2008, and the department is now down to 23,000; structure fires have been shaved to about 100 from 200 per year. Grant assured those at the meeting and the aldermen that response times after the retirement of the engine will not change, but the addition of the ALS units will decrease their response time.
“The volume of calls (needing ALS response) we are now experiencing has increased to the point, I know, of not being able to provide for 1,100 alarms,” Grant said after the meeting.
Alderman Justin Elicker, D-10, the lead signer on the order seeking a public hearing, expressed concern that the public was not involved in the decision, but the chief assured the audience there was no intent to exclude the public.
Grant displayed a map of the city using aldermen’s addresses as examples of residences to illustrate that the coverage areas and response times would be the same.
Rob Narracci expressed concern about the numbers shown for response times and asked the board to scrutinize them more closely.
“Response time is key,” said Firefighter Ray Saracco. “It takes one minute to receive a call; it takes two minutes to get out the door; it takes three minutes to get to the scene. I don’t know where those numbers came from because it is virtually impossible unless you have a spaceship.”
After the meeting, Assistant Fire Chief Patrick Egan explained that the response times listed were the minutes from the time the firefighters leave the building to the time it takes to arrive at a residence.The national standard for response time is four minutes, 90 percent of the time.
Grant said that he based his decision on the city’s needs, and he has been looking at the option of taking Engine 8 out of service for a few years and adding two ALS units, but he didn’t previously have the personnel to make it happen.
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