By Jay Ransom
The Philadelphia Daily News
PHILDELPHIA — Last August, just five days after the start of a city policy of rolling brownouts at selected fire stations to save money, a 12-year-old boy with autism died in a raging fire in his West Philadelphia home.
Although there is no evidence that Frank Marasco’s death was a direct result of the city’s brownout plan — in which about three fire stations are temporarily closed once a week on a rotational basis to save $3.8 million in overtime — his untimely death set off a heated debate about the city’s cuts.
A year later, response times have increased, the Fire Department’s injuries have risen and fire-related civilian deaths are up from the same time last year. But city officials and the fire union disagree over whether those changes are a result of the brownouts.
Annual response times for engines and medics last year were the highest in 10 years. Although still below national guidelines, the average engine-response time in 2010 was 4 minutes 53 seconds. As of June this year, that time had increased to 5 minutes.
“It is a direct result of the first-in companies being browned-out,” said Bill Gault, president of the firefighters’ union. “The Fire Department is bearing the brunt of these cuts. It’s dangerous to us, and it’s dangerous to civilians.”
City officials insist that the upticks in the department’s injuries and civilian deaths are unrelated to the cost-saving measure.
“The brownouts haven’t had a damn thing to do with it,” said Everett Gillison, deputy mayor for public safety. “We used brownouts as a way to deal with the economic crisis. Without the use of brownouts, we would have had a higher number of overtime.”
Gillison said he has not laid off any firefighters. But Rob Dubow, city financial director, said that this past fiscal year, the Fire Department exceeded its $19.3 million overtime budget by $3.9 million.
As for the department’s 136 injuries as of June — up from 118 last year — Gillison said that most were not fire-related and that some Philadelphians are not practicing fire-safety prevention.
This year, 26 people have died in fires, compared with 33 who died in all of 2010.
“Fortunately for citizens, there hasn’t been a tragic incident that was brownout-related,” said a fire officer who declined to give his name because of fear of reprisal. “Certainly there could have been better response times. Brownouts create large gaps in Fire Department coverage.”
Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said response times were delayed by severe snowstorms in the winter, not by brownouts.
“So far the brownouts have done what we expected in every area from operations to financial savings,” Ayers said. “We have been able to satisfy our goals and keep the community protected.”
Fire calls are declining, according to a recent report by PhillyStat, a city performance-management program that analyzes data by fiscal year from July 1 to June 30 — but emergency medical services incidents increased by more than 9,700 incidents between fiscal years 2009 and 2011. As a result, emergency medical response times have also jumped, to 8 minutes 22 seconds compared with about 6 minutes in fiscal 2009.
Roughly 30 percent of emergency medical incidents were serious enough to require advanced life support, the report said.
Emergency responders say the problem is that people call 9-1-1 for ailments as small as a broken toenail or a minor stomach ache.
"[We have] to re-educate the public,” Gillison said. “We can’t go there when you have a fall and cut your lip. [You’re] really not in distress. We’re trying not to send companies and ladders to people who don’t need the service.”
To determine how much of a fire department is needed, the city asked the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority in October to fund an independent study to assess the Fire Department’s management, operations, structure, system performance and service.
The study, expected to be done by the end of the year, also will examine response times. City records show only the time that the first vehicle arrives on scene, usually not a firefighting vehicle.
Gillison said he has been pushing to get computers and GPS systems for all vehicles to better track performance and response times.
About 25 paramedics graduated this year, and the department is accepting applications until Friday for a new group of firefighters; testing is scheduled for November.
Copyright 2011 Philadelphia Newspapers, LLC
All Rights Reserved