By Gayla Cawley
Boston Heral
BOSTON — After taking some heat from city councilors, the Boston Fire Department said a new order has been placed for plastic hats that will be distributed to children at fire houses, spending that had been halted due to budget cuts.
Brian Alkins, a spokesman for the Boston Fire Department, said a directive had gone out earlier this month for firehouses to stop distributing plastic hats to kids after the city froze discretionary spending due to a $48.4 million budget gap.
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Hats were still available at some fire houses, but the directive was given out of fairness, to ensure children were receiving the same treatment, regardless of whether supplies were available for school- or other kid-related visits at various fire station locations, Alkins told the Boston Herald on Wednesday.
Now, Boston Fire has been cleared to purchase the plastic hats, which can be costly, given that tens of thousands are distributed to children by the department each year, either at firehouses or community events, Alkins said. Roughly 10,000 hats are distributed through the fire prevention program alone, he said.
“The order has gone through,” Alkins said. “We will be getting our fire hats shortly.”
The hats are distributed at firehouses as part of the Boston Fire Department’s Fire Prevention Education Unit, which educates K-12 students about fire safety and hosts kid-friendly events like touch-a-truck.
Boston Fire Lt. Henry Perkins, who works for the unit, sent an internal email that was obtained by the Herald and stated, “Due to current budget limitations, the Fire Prevention Education Unit will not be issuing fire hats to fire houses at this time.”
Boston City Councilors Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy, who saw their push for an audit of city and school department spending killed by the City Council this month, criticized the city for cutting funding for the education initiative.
“Fire prevention education is not a program that should be cut from the city budget,” Flynn said. “I have seen firsthand how this critical outreach to Boston residents teaches people how to recognize hazards, practice safety and respond to emergencies. Let’s not put residents at risk by cutting public safety outreach programs.”
After the Herald published an article about the pause on fire hat distribution to children and the councilors’ criticism on Wednesday, Alkins called the paper to clarify that the situation was temporary due to the city’s belt-tightening.
“It was a freeze, and everything was put on hold while we reevaluated our money situation,” Alkins said. “We have to order things ahead of time. When we went to order them, everything was frozen. So we don’t have the hats.
“We have to reorder them, but we have to base it on, everybody was tightening up their budget and finding out financially,” Alkins added. “Once we get everything settled, we will go back to giving out hats. It’s not like it’s a permanent thing. It was just a temporary thing that we weren’t putting out hats.”
The administration of Mayor Michelle Wu issued an internal memo last month outlining the city’s decision to freeze some spending and delay hiring amid a budget crunch. The mayor’s team later revealed that the freeze was put in place to help the city close a $48.4 million budget shortfall by the end of this fiscal year 2026, or June 30.
The combined budget gap between the city and Boston Public Schools is more than $100 million. Mayor Michelle Wu pitched a budget for FY27 with a 2.1% overall increase, the lowest rate of growth since the Great Recession in FY10.
Alkins said he didn’t know when the new order had been placed, or if the timing was driven by the Herald article and criticism, but said the department had always intended to order new hats and was able to move some money around to do so.
“I understand, it’s not a good look,” Alkins said.
He added that the department will be more mindful in the future to avoid running out of hats again for kids.
“Everybody wants a fire hat,” Alkins said. “It’s really for the children. We’ll give them away to adults and all that. So we have to be more cognizant of what we’re doing with our materials because it’s expensive after a while.”
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