Firefighters Rally as CCFD Faces Uncertain Future

As the future of the Central Coventry Fire District hangs in the balance, firefighters from across Rhode Island gathered in solidarity on the steps of Coventry Town Hall on Friday to warn residents that their safety is under threat, they could lose professional fire and rescue service in less than a week and that political forces are entirely to blame.

“We are in a desperate fight to protect public safety and to save our community from being torn apart by good ‘ole boy politics,” said Paul C. Reed, president of the Rhode Island State Association of Firefighters.

Meanwhile in Kent County Superior Court, Judge Brian Stern ordered the district’s board to engage with the state receiver to begin an orderly transition of control back to the board. The state backed out of the nine-month bankruptcy process last week, citing a deliberate effort to derail the district’s path to solvency on the part of Rep. Patricia Morgan, members of the fire district board and the Coventry Town Council.

The state-appointed receiver, Mark Pfieffer, said in the filing that even though the bankruptcy had brought the district to near-solvency with $1.9 million in the bank, $13 million in union concessions over the next five years and a plan to fix a structural deficit at a cost of $8 per household, that apparent fixation on outsourcing fire and rescue service made implementation impossible.

The same sentiments were expressed by Interim Fire Chief Shawn Murray, who was appointed to the post by the receiver in April and resigned this week. and said in his resignation letter that he couldn’t continue trying to serve the residents of the district while being subjected to such a “toxic political environment.”

Reed said residents need to call the Governor and local elected officials to demand that fire and rescue service not be privatized in addition to protesting the state’s decision to back out of the bankruptcy proceeding.

“For the past nine months, good people, experts in their particular fields, have worked on a plan to ensure the community maintains the level of protection they’re accustomed to while keeping the economic wishes of the taxpayer in mind,” Reed said. “Now it seems our local politicians, whose only plan to provide protection for the community moving forward is to hire a for-profit EMS corporation and zero fire protection.”

At the press conference and rally, about 200 firefighters carried signs that depicted bloody handprints below Morgan’s name along with signs that declared “Coventry, enter at your own risk” and “public safety vs. politics.”

Reed said that when tragedy strikes as a result of diminished fire services, ”the fault will be directly at the feet of Patricia Morgan, the Coventry fire board and the Town Council,”

Dave Gorman, the President of the International Association of Firefighters Local 3372, the Coventry fire union, said that the “political assault” against firefighters has led to five firefighters to resign in just the past few days and more than 30 over the past two years.

Gorman also said that there are severe financial ramifications at play. Under the bankruptcy plan, the district had resolved its obligations and debts to creditors. Unless the board carries out the plan, those debts will return.

This story will be updated.