CN FFs say puck you; Raking in the OT in MD; $26 million Chicago hi-rise settlement; Comments on PGFD stories; Fleitz fights; Ohio border issues

The management of the Fire Department really appeared to be a bunch of amateurs on the night of the 21st, commented Michel Crevier, president of the Montreal Firefighters Association. We don’t understand why the fire department has plans in place for events such as the Jazz Festival, the Grand Prix and the fireworks but nothing was prepared for the hockey match.

The only plan the City had in place, was to ensure that the fire station windows were cleaned of the HABS logos before the game.

The report said so much overtime could raise health and safety concerns for firefighters and opens the door to possible fraud and abuse. Overtime rose 47.5 percent from 2004 to 2007; this year, the fire and rescue service is on track to exceed its overtime budget for the fifth year.

Montgomery Inspector General Thomas Dagley, who has been studying the issue for two years, said in his report that the system “has become increasingly dependent on the use of overtime by senior level personnel . . . and created a workforce environment in which overtime remains vulnerable to abuse.”

Officials across the region are grappling with rising overtime. In Fairfax County, for example, fire and rescue department overtime increased $1.2 million to $18.68 million in the past year. John J. Caussin Jr., an assistant fire chief for personnel in Fairfax, said that in tight budget times, fire departments still have to staff firetrucks and medic units, without adding personnel. “You’ve got to do more with less,” he said.

Montgomery officials said budget constraints over the past decade have forced firefighters to take on extra duties, such as teaching recruits. In some cases, they said, paying overtime can be less expensive than hiring firefighters because retirement costs are higher for public safety employees than other county workers, a claim that auditors questioned.

County officials pledged to eliminate unnecessary overtime. “Can we do more work on that? Sure,” said Timothy Firestine, the county’s chief administrative officer, who formerly headed the Finance Department. “If the hour doesn’t need to be worked, let’s eliminate the hour. If the hour has to be worked, we have to find the most efficient, effective way of doing that.”

Fire union representatives said overtime should not be cause for concern. “We don’t believe there’s a problem. We understand that a couple people have snuck through the cracks, but we believe with what we’ve put into place, there won’t be any issue at all,” firefighter union chief John Sparks said.

With some firefighters working as many as 80 hours a week, some employees are worried about on-the-job safety, the inspector general’s report said. That concern was also voiced by Fire and Rescue Service Director Thomas W. Carr Jr. A regular workweek is 40 to 48 hours, depending on the job.

Carr said much of the overtime can be traced to decisions made by county leaders in the 1990s during a budget crunch, which forced the agency to increase the workload for firefighters and reduce hiring.

The last-minute deal allows the county and six other defendants to avoid a massive and potentially risky civil trial, set to begin next week, that will examine the fire in the 37-story structure at 69 W. Washington St. that killed six office workers and injured 16 others.

Meanwhile, the settlements allow the plaintiffs to focus on what they say are the most blameworthy defendants, including the City of Chicago, said Robert Clifford, lead attorney for the plaintiffs.

The workers died in the fire on Oct. 17, 2003, after they became trapped in a stairwell with self-locking doors. Smoke poured up into the stairwell as firefighters battled the blaze on the 12th floor below.

In 22 lawsuits, the plaintiffs targeted what they allege were a series of mistakes by firefighters and the city’s 911 operators, including poor communication and a failure to designate one stairwell for firefighting and one for evacuation.

Lawyers said the litigation ranks among the county’s largest civil cases in terms of attorney hours, documents reviewed and witness depositions.

County officials said Tuesday that they settled because the entire $9 million would be paid from insurance proceeds, while a jury verdict might have outstripped their coverage limits.

County officials admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement.

“What I see is a lot of finger-pointing going on between the remaining defendants,” Clifford said.

For the defendants, a trial would likely involve further rehashing of the criticism they faced in the wake of the fire, when two independent panels heaped criticism on the Chicago Fire Department and others.

A settlement would allow the plaintiffs to avoid testifying in court about the trauma of the day and their agonizing wait for rescuers.

At a court hearing last year, the plaintiffs’ lawyers played a harrowing 8-minute phone call to 911 from Jody Schneiderman, a survivor who feared for her life as she was trapped in the southeast stairwell.

“You’ve got to open the doors,” Schneiderman pleaded on the call.

Shouts are heard in the background.

Later, she complains she can no longer see.

“We don’t have much longer,” Schneiderman says in the recording. “Oh my God, I can’t stand it.”

Lawyers for the city argued last year that long-standing legal precedent makes the city immune from lawsuits based on the alleged mistakes of firefighters or other emergency personnel.

But in a key ruling last year, Maddux ruled the plaintiffs’ allegations—if proven at trial—could overcome those normal immunities.

But it will have to be done. All city departments in Roanoke have been ordered to reduce their budgets. As a result, the fire department plans to take an engine out of service and then eliminate one administrative position as well as six uniform positions. That will bring about a savings of nearly $400,000.

Hoback points out no one will lose their jobs. It will all be done through attrition. Even so, the Roanoke Fire Fighters Association is fighting the cuts.

“We feel the decrease in staffing and taking another engine out of service will increase response times,” says Rhett Fleitz with the Roanoke Fire Fighters Association.

They fear that will jeopardize fire fighters and the people they’re trying to protect. The fire chief says if the cuts are approved, the same amount of personnel will be at every fire scene and response times won’t change a bit.