Neighboring Fire Chiefs Express Concern Over Removal of Ladder Truck 1

The effect of removing Ladder 1 from service is beginning to be felt in the neighboring communities that Woonsocket depends on for mutual aid.  Fire Chiefs from North Smithfield and Blackstone have said that the new policy will have an impact on how they operate.

“It will change the way we conduct business,” said North Smithfield Fire Chief Joel D. Jillson, “It’s more than just mutual aid, it’s the borrowing of an apparatus, it’s the unfamiliarity of geographies and demographics and there could be an issue with longer response times.”

Jillson, who spent 30 years as a Woonsocket firefighter before working in North Smithfield has a keen understanding of what it takes to protect Woonsocket with its many multi-family homes, tight spaces between structures and narrow roads. 

“You don’t rise to a certain level of trucks and personnel without a certain reason, so you don’t remove one without a significant reason,” said Jillson regarding the city’s decision .

Mayor Leo Fontaine made the decision to cut Ladder 1 from service in order to save Woonsocket tax payers an estimated $250,000 over the next six months.

Neither Jillson nor Blackstone Fire Chief Michael Sweeney were asked for input by the city of Woonsocket before they made the decision to remove the truck and to depend more heavily on the mutual aid agreement.

“I haven’t been informed as to what has taken place,” said Blackstone Chief Sweeney about the possibility of Woonsocket leaning more heavily on his station, “I heard it through the grapevine that Sunday [January 30] Ladder Truck 1 was coming out of service.  That kind of blindsided us a little bit.  We didn’t know this was coming.”

Both North Smithfield and Blackstone have one ladder truck, so when they respond to a call from Woonsocket they leave their own town’s citizens dependent on mutual aid and off-duty firefighters.

“It does impact us,” said Jillson, “We don’t have the number of people that Woonsocket does.  When our truck responds to Woonsocket we have to call in our own men and pay them overtime.  That leaves us down personnel until we can activate them.”

Sweeney also said that when he sends men to Woonsocket he must activate off-duty firefighters.  Those firefighters are paid for a minimum of two hours and a rate of time and a half, which is about three or four hundred dollars, said Sweeney.

Despite taking Ladder 1 out of service it has been used twice since Jan. 30 due to a policy created by Woonsocket Fire Chief Gary Lataille.  The policy states that when Ladder 2 is responding to a structural fire, Ladder 1 is to be manned by off-duty men.  Firefighters called in to man Ladder 1 are paid time and a half.  Ladder 1 was placed into service on Jan. 31 for 5 hours and again on Feb. 4 for another 5 hours, which cost the city a total of $1,118.17, according to Lataille.

“We are putting it into service because aerial 2 is out of service specifically because it is functioning at a fire scene,” said Lataille, “It’s for fire protection for citizenry and firefighters.”

“My stance is still that Ladder 1 should have never been taken out of service,” said Christopher Oakland, President of the Woonsocket Fire Fighters Association, “No out of town community can replace the response time that Ladder 1 would have in the city.”

Ladder 1 is an older truck, with more mileage and hours than Ladder 2, but it has many benefits, said Oakland.  Ladder 1 is smaller, making it more versatile.  It is able to get into tight confined areas, between houses, under phone or cable wires and into driveways to gain access to roofs.

“There has been situations when Ladder 2 was pulled to a scene first and that truck had to be pulled away and Ladder 1 had to be brought in because Ladder 2 couldn’t get close enough,” said Oakland, “If we didn’t need two ladder trucks in the city then why did we go out and spend $750,000 to a million dollars on a new ladder truck less than two years ago.”

Chief Sweeney from Blackstone said this will certainly be a topic of conversation at the upcoming Fire Chief’s meeting next Thursday.

“If it’s a rescue call or an emergency call then I’ll send my people,” said Sweeney, “If I don’t think it’s a mutual aid thing, if it turns into a one-way situation, then I’ll definitely offer my opinion.”