By Robert Mills
The Lowell Sun
DRACUT, Mass. — Last Friday, when a three-alarm fire struck a pair of homes in Lawrence, firefighters from Westford drove 20 miles because the Lawrence Fire Department needed their help.
Lawrence closed two of its fire stations last year, and earlier this year laid off 23 firefighters, leaving the city with just 13 firefighters at any given time to protect a city of almost 80,000.
Those staffing levels have forced Lawrence to ask for help from its neighbors, and even communities farther away, such as Westford, Dracut and Lowell.
The costs for providing that help are borne by the communities that provide the help, as are the costs of providing benefits to firefighters who are injured, no matter where they are hurt.
Though local fire chiefs say the mutual-aid system typically works out even for everyone, a series of recent calls for help from Lawrence have begun to raise eyebrows.
A ladder truck, a captain and three other firefighters from Westford needed 36 minutes to reach Lawrence on Aug. 6. They spent 38 minutes covering a fire station there, and then made the long trip home.
Providing that assistance to a city that is borrowing $35 million from the state, even though the state already provides 100 percent of its school funding, cost Westford an estimated $500 in fuel and manpower.
When a second call for help came last Sunday, this time for a four-alarm fire in Lawrence, Westford Fire Chief Richard Rochon declined to send his firefighters because he knew they would only be covering a station.
“I was concerned with taking apparatus out of my own community just to go there and cover a station,” Rochon said. “If he needed me at the fire, I would provide that coverage to the fire.”
Rochon knows and respects Acting Lawrence Fire Chief Brian Murphy, but stood by comments he made to the Eagle Tribune of North Andover, in which he said he felt the mutual-aid system was being misused by Lawrence.
“The system is not designed to augment someone else’s budget,” Rochon said.
And in comments made in a meeting regarding mutual-aid calls last Wednesday, Murphy seemed to agree.
“Lawrence has to take care of itself,” Murphy said. “We cannot rely on everyone else.”
Murphy has sounded the alarm in his own city, warning that both people and property are endangered by the current staffing levels. He has asked for help from both his city and the state, but received nothing.
Rochon said he believes Murphy is doing the best he can in a tough situation imposed upon him by city leaders. Dracut Fire Chief Leo Gaudette shares that view.
“The problem is not with the Lawrence Fire Department, it’s with the powers that be in the city of Lawrence,” Gaudette said.
Rochon, Guadette, and Chief Edward Pitta in Lowell all continued to praise the mutual aid system as a whole, though, and noted that all towns have had to rely on it more in recent years as budgets have grown tighter.
“Right now it’s Lawrence in the spotlight,” Pitta said. “But many communities have been forced to rely more heavily on mutual aid than in the past, including Lowell.”
Pitta said there should be 39 firefighters staffing 13 fire stations across Lowell each day, but that number is allowed to reach as low as 30 firefighters before off-duty firefighters are offered overtime to work.
The city used to bring in off-duty firefighters when that number reached 33, but budget cuts forced a reduction.
Pitta said the move has helped him cut his overtime budget from $1.5 million to less than $400,000 this year, but that it also means Lowell sometimes calls for mutual aid from Chelmsford to cover fire stations on a first-alarm or second-alarm fire.
“Years ago that wouldn’t happen until a third or fourth alarm,” Pitta said.
Lowell has sent crews to Lawrence seven times since July 22, and 12 times in the fiscal year, but Lowell doesn’t replace crews sent out on mutual aid calls, so the costs associated with mutual aid are minimal.
But in Dracut, where a small firefighting force requires that crews be replaced when they leave town, Gaudette has to bring in call firefighters or off-duty firefighters to replace crews sent away.
In 2008 and 2009, that cost Gaudette about $6,000 per year. In just the first six months of this year, it has already cost him $10,000, even as Dracut also suffers from a shortage of manpower necessitated by the budget.
Tewksbury Fire Chief Richard Mackey said his crews have only been called to Lawrence once in July, but that the trip cost him nothing because his department relies on mutual aid from other surrounding towns to replace crews sent out of town on mutual-aid calls.
Gaudette said his crews have been called to Lawrence eight times, while they’ve only been called to Lowell eight times, even though Lowell is next door.
“I just can’t see (Lawrence) operating the way they’re going for very much longer,” Pitta said. “I’ve spoken to the city manager about this and neither of us is ready to alter our commitment to the system, even though we’re not really happy about the situation.”
The Essex County Fire Chiefs Association will host a meeting on Tuesday at 9 a.m. at the Andover Public Safety Building to discuss how to best handle the Lawrence crisis.
Mutual-aid crisis, by the numbers
$35 million — The amount of a state-backed bailout for the city of Lawrence.
39 — The maximum number of firefighters on duty in Lowell.
13 — The maximum number of firefighters on duty in Lawrence.
7 — The number of times Lowell firefighters have traveled to Lawrence for mutual aid since July 22.
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