Higher Staffing Means More Savings for Stoughton Fire

STOUGHTON, MA — The Stoughton Fire Department was able to staff their fire department with 11 firefighters at a time in January, but the staffing level remains a concern.

During the month, 15 out of town mutual aid ambulances called for and five of the 15 use at two car accidents with multiple cars involved, according to data supplied by Leon Silva, president of Stoughton Firefighter Local 1512. Both of Stoughton's ambulances also used at those incidents because of the number of patients. Ten calls were made because Stoughton fire did not have an ambulance available for the initial 911 call.

In December, the fire department was staffed with at least nine men and 52 mutual aid ambulance requests were made because they didn't have an ambulance to respond

"If you use 10 mutual aid ambulances called because we did not have one to respond to a 911 call in the month of January, It shows at 11 men we recouped the revenue of 42 911 ambulances calls we lost in December and supplied a safer and more efficient service to the public," Silva wrote.

In December, Fire Chief Michael Laracy told the selectmen that he was adding staff to his next budget and will continue to do so until the department reaches 15 people a shift.

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