HAMMOND | Firefighters canvassed the area around Fire Station No. 1 on Monday, distributing fliers and telling residents their safety may be compromised.
The goal is to educate residents about changes the city is making in the fire department, said Edward Lomeli, president of Hammond Professional Firefighters Association Local 556.
To save money, the city is leaving ladder truck 1 unmanned. Initially, the city planned to eliminate staffing from ladder truck 8 because of its low call volume. But Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said after taking another look at the maps it makes more sense geographically to take the staffing off ladder truck 1.
Hammond is L-shaped, and the four trucks were spread across stations in the L. If the city would have left truck 8 unmanned, it would have left the bottom leg of the L without a ladder truck. Having three trucks spread across the northern, central and southern parts of the L is a more even distribution, McDermott said.
Turning to the fire department to save money is not a good move, Lomeli said. Over the past four years, staffing has dropped from 180 to 155 through attrition, he said.
"We can't give any more," he said. "Public safety should be one of the last things cut on a budget."
Emergency responders sometimes get delayed by a train on the way to a scene. Pulling a truck out of service will impact response across the city, so the firefighters will continue distributing fliers Wednesday and Friday hoping to reach every Hammond resident by the end of the week, Lomeli said.
The fliers include information about the impact of removing staff from truck 1 and lists the names and phone numbers of the mayor and council members.
McDermott said it's despicable the firefighters are using scare tactics to make residents think the city's decision will leave them unprotected.
"It's completely false," McDermott said.
Ladder trucks still will respond but will be dispatched from a different location, he said.
The city owns four ladder trucks, three of which will remained staffed. That's more than any other city in northern Indiana except for South Bend and Fort Wayne, which staff four ladder trucks, McDermott said.
Each firefighter costs Hammond about $100,000 a year, including salary, benefits and overtime. Removing three shifts of four firefighters from ladder truck 1 will save the city about $1.2 million.
The decision likely will mean more work for firefighters manning the remaining three ladder trucks, McDermott said.
"If you make $100,000 per year, you should be working very, very hard for it," he said.
