There are Fireworks and fire fears in one local community today. That's because Lorain laid off nearly 2 dozen firefighters as it fights to close a 3-point-6 million dollar deficit.
As we've been telling you, the fire department, is upset over the decision. Members now explain the layoffs couldn't have come at a more inconvenient time.
Today, Lorain has one fire station, and two trucks. Compare that to a week ago, when seven trucks were running. That's because on Friday, Lorain let go of 23 firefighters…and members of both the department and the community say they're concerned about safety.
Michael Popovich, a local Lorain resident said,“I’m afraid there’s going to be more, more disasters now than there’s ever been.”
His mother, Beatrice Popovich, feels the same way, “they’ve given up a lot and then all of a sudden they tell them you’re no longer needed. That’s disgusting.
Lieutenant Dan Russell of the Lorain Fire Department has been with the fire department for nearly 20 years and tells me he's never seen them incapable of serving residents.
“For us it’s disastrous …it’s crippling to us. When we were fully staffed in maybe my second year, we had 98 guys here, now we’re down to 48, that’s 50 guys over less than 20 years.”
One concern is the response time. Yesterday alone, the department received 11 calls, 2 of them were for major fires, taking them five minutes longer than normal to respond for almost all of them.
“We used to be looked at as leaders in this county for aggressive interior firefighting, now we’re almost like a joke,” said Lieutenant Russell.
Just today, an apartment caught fire and the Lorain fire department needed to call in 4 nearby cities to help. It’s something that’s been happening all weekend.
“We want to thank those cities for helping us out, but how long can we run that way? We can’t be supplemented by the surrounding cities,” he said.
And with nearly 12 thousand firework emergencies happening in the US just last year, Lieutenant Russell said his biggest fear for today is leaving someone behind.
“There’s more dollar stores open in Lorain today than there are fireman on the trucks that’s pretty telling…in the end, that’s what counts. The citizens here deserve better than that.”
We reached out to the Mayor of Lorain, and have yet to hear back from him or anyone from his office. The city safety director has said officials are hoping to get a federal grant, so the firefighters can return to work.
No word yet on the progress of that grant.
