WARREN - For the first time in the city's recent budget crisis, two secondary fire stations were shut down for an entire day Friday.
After vacation time, calls-off for sick leave and a call-off for bereavement leave, the Warren City Fire Department was left with about 12 firefighters and one dispatcher, less than the 17 needed to keep all three stations open.
City administration officials did not approve the use of overtime, a call they said saved the city about $3,600.
Secondary stations on Atlantic Street and Parkman Road are the first dispatched to fires on the northeast and southwest areas of the city respectively. They are the first to close if the number of firefighters drops below minimum staffing.
Until about 7 a.m. today, the remaining 24-hour shift firefighters will stay at the downtown fire station.
There is a general ban against using overtime in the city in an effort to make up an expected $1.75 million budget shortfall, but members of the Fire Department said they have already made attrition cuts in their department.
They worried that there could be injuries because of the staffing. Union president Marc Titus said the safety service levy passed in 2007 was to keep the departments staffed.
"We're outraged about it," Titus said. "We're upset that we just passed a tax."
Titus said that the city was saving hundreds of thousands of dollars by not replacing four firemen.
"It's not the Fire Department causing the deficit. We already made our cuts," he said.
Fire Capt. Dan Suttles said he called Mayor Michael J. O'Brien and Safety Service Director Doug Franklin at 6:50 a.m. They asked about the department's manpower and about the call-offs.
"They were all legitimate," he said of the call-offs.
Suttles said he could call for overtime in the event of a fire, but the lack of firefighters at the other two stations would increase response time. He said if needed, a firefighter would have to be reached by phone, then would have to go to one of the stations to get into their turnout gear.
"My rough guess is about 40 minutes for me to get someone else to help," Suttles said.
Fire Chief Ken Nussle said the department has mutual aid agreements with Warren Township and Howland Township, which he thinks he may use more often.
"It's no one's fault. It's a lack of funding," the chief said.
But Nussle worried about the safety of his crews and said that the department's tactics of fighting vacant home fires has changed in part because of staffing. He believed that the layoffs of 17 fire fighters in 2000 led to two firefighters being seriously burned in a fire on New Year's Eve that year.
"It took an entire year, but when you close stations you're rolling the dice," Nussle said.
The chief said that his crews - unless they think someone is inside the home - will take a defensive approach to fighting a vacant house fire opposed to an offensive approach. He said firefighters will stand outside the burning home and prevent other structures from catching fire.
Nussle did not comment when he was asked if the city could be held liable for injuries, but Titus said "absolutely."
O'Brien called the call-offs legitimate and said the administration was trying to keep "one eye on the budget and the other eye on the services" for the city.
"We're attempting to work the rest of the year without overtime so we don't have massive cuts throughout the entire city," O'Brien said.