Union presses Amherst officials on Fire Department staffing

Nov. 22, 2021 | Trent Levakis
tlevakis@thereminder.com

AMHERST – The Amherst Fire Department (AFD) is looking to solve a staffing issue that has plagued the department for multiple years and is now bleeding over into surrounding towns emergency response teams.

The last two Town Council meetings in November saw public comment on the issue, but at the Nov. 16 meeting Firefighter Nick Chirekos spoke on behalf of the Amherst Fire Local 1764 urging the town to focus on the need to address this issue and making this branch of public safety a top priority for the upcoming budget.

“Staffing continues to remain dangerously low. We are relying on other towns to help with the shortfall of staffing,” Chirekos said.

Chirekos said to the council that due to the reliance on surrounding towns’ emergency services at times, Amherst Fire Department has overutilized these resources to a point where other towns will occasionally struggle due to a portion of their staff attending to Amherst emergencies. Chirekos also expressed that the lack of effort toward providing proper staffing has put a toll on firefighters both physically and mentally.

“There have been multiple studies performed, all of which show that staffing in the Fire Department needs to be increased, but it continues to be ignored,” Chirekos said. “We cannot allow this to still be an issue. We need additional staffing.”

The International Association for Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 1764 Amherst Fire has worked toward providing information and facts surrounding their current situation.

The AFD’s staff is currently comprised of 40 firefighters working every day to provide emergency services for the town. There are four “tours” or work groups, working 24-hour rotation shifts with each shift having an average of 10 on duty members assigned to two separate fire stations, with a minimum on duty strength of seven during the summer, and eight during normal school months.

Due to normal fluctuations in staffing, including vacation time and sick time, the AFD is rarely at full strength and as a result, when staffing levels drop below minimum levels, firefighters are mandated to stay for up to 14 hours past their 24-hour shift to maintain these levels. A goal of the department to assist in these issues would be to get up to 45 firefighters staffed.

“There has been no meaningful change to minimum on duty staffing levels for several decades, despite the fact that call volume has increased by nearly 500 percent,” the IAFF Amherst Fire Local 1764 claimed in a pamphlet it published regarding the situation.

“The issue of properly staffing the Fire Department has been a growing problem for decades. As far back as the 1970s, independent staffing studies conducted on the Amherst Fire Department have suggested Amherst needs at least double the amount of staffing for its Fire Department,” said Tom Valle, secretary of Local 1764. Valle spoke to Reminder Publishing on behalf of the union, not on behalf of the department.

According to Local 1764, the department averages 17 emergency calls a day with approximately 80 percent of these calls being requests for an ambulance. Ambulance services are only provided by members of the Fire Department’s career force, as the training to become certified and maintain that certification is extensive. As a result of this demanding training and education, paramedics can provide many of the life saving treatments that would be offered in the early stages of care at a hospital.

With such a high volume of calls coming in, the staff is stretched even thinner when having to go out on that call. According to the IAFF, one ambulance transport drops the shift strength about 20 to 25 percent for about two hours. Nearly 45 percent of all emergencies in town will occur simultaneously with another separate emergency, which means nearly 15 percent of all emergencies in town will occur simultaneously with two other emergencies. In these cases, staffing is quickly depleted more, leaving certain the possibilities for delayed emergency responses on their behalf.

For context, the AFD has the smallest career force of any community within the commonwealth in its population range yet is one of the busiest. There are only 1.11 firefighters per 1,000 residents, one of the lowest ratios in the state. While the IAFF says these specific statistics are from 2003, they have become more dramatic as call volumes increase on average about 5 percent per year.

The razor thin margins of error the department faces possible public safety consequences that leave the town vulnerable, the union claims.  

“Firefighters work in volatile, high stress environments. In a true emergency, there is no time to pause and contemplate your next action,” the IAFF literature reads.

“As the union understands it, the fire chief addresses the issues of Fire Department staffing, stations, and equipment every year when asked for a budget by the town manager. But every year the chief’s comments and suggestions are dismissed by the town manager and never make it to the town’s financial planning or budgeting process,” said Valle. “In fact, Town Council members have recently expressed surprise, citing they had never been made aware of the chief’s requests for adequate funding.”

Back in June of this year the Local 1764 group expressed frustration in an open letter to the town of Amherst that another year has passed with no significant increase of money for safe staffing of the AFD.

Reminder Publishing reached out for comment from Town Manager Paul Bockelman and Fire Chief Tim Nelson on this issue but was unable to receive any comment as of press time.

“We feel it’s important not to blame Mr. Bockelman for the Fire Department’s staffing crisis. This problem has been around for much longer than anyone that currently works for the town,” Valle added in an email describing the challenges of getting town officials to prioritize this issue. “We are not interested in pointing fingers. Instead, we are interested in working towards a solution. That said, the problem cannot be addressed if it is never brought to the budgeting table as a priority.”

IAFF Amherst Fire Local 1764 asserts it has presented the issues facing the department in hopes to urge action as soon as possibly for the sake of public safety.

“In the firefighting community, they were lambasted for their lack of response and preparation for such an event. Meanwhile, in 2021, AFD continues to respond to 22-story residential high-rises with just three people in a single fire engine,” Valle said.

According to Valle, in June of 2019 the AFD was cited by Firehouse Magazine, a nationally recognized publication, as an example of how not to staff a fire department.  

“Complacency has allowed our staffing levels to go unchanged decade after decade, endangering both residents, and firefighters. Today an on-duty strength of 15 seems daunting, if not impossible to achieve, but what is the alternative? The Carlson Group, who completed the most recent staffing study (2017) implied that current staffing levels are unsustainable without significant change,” the group wrote. “If you find any of this information unacceptable, we encourage you to reach out to your elected officials.”

Valle indicated the union will continue to press the issue in the fiscal year 2023 budget process.

“We [Amherst Firefighters, Local 1764] are not asking for the problem to be resolved overnight. That’s not realistic. We recognize this problem has been brewing for years and likewise, it will take years to fix. What we are asking for is to take the first steps, together with the town, towards fixing this dangerous situation. And we look forward to working with Amherst’s leadership in order to accomplish this goal,” Valle said.

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