By Jamal Thalji
The St. Petersburg Times
ST. PETERSBURG — The city fire department is dangerously understaffed, according to a district chief, risking the lives of firefighters and those they serve.
St. Petersburg Fire Rescue is the only major department in Tampa Bay that allows two-man crews on ladder trucks. Those crews need to show up in full gear — 50 pounds of fire-resistant bunker suits, air tanks and Nomex hoods — ready to wade into a blaze together to search for survivors as soon as they step off the truck.
That’s why most agencies staff ladder trucks with at least three or four firefighters. In Tampa, the minimum is three. Someone has to drive the fire truck, and they can’t do it wearing all that gear.
But in St. Petersburg, a two-man ladder crew can’t do much until the driver gets out and gets dressed.
District Chief Rich Johnson said a May 30 fire convinced him to go public with his concerns in a memo. That night, two paramedics pulled an injured man out of the blaze. He later died.
Johnson had wanted to send more firefighters inside the home to search for other victims, but the two-man ladder truck crew who arrived after the paramedics had to wait three minutes for the driver to get dressed.
No other victims were found, Johnson said. But what about next time? “Short staffing truck companies is in essence ‘setting them up to fail,’?” Johnson wrote.
But fire Chief James Large defended the two-firefighter policy, which goes back to the 1980s.
Large said his concern isn’t how many firefighters arrive on one particular truck — it’s making sure enough firefighters arrive in the first place.
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