Did company closings create the conditions for Philadelphia fire truck wreck? Union thinks so. Mayor’s office calls idea “utterly ridiculous”.
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Click here to view WCAU-TV’s closeup video from the crash scene.
An interesting exchange in Philadelphia a day after the collision of Ladder 9 and Squirt 43. The president of IAFF Local 22, Brian McBride, makes the case the two rigs likely wouldn’t have even been dispatched on the response where the crash occurred if Mayor Michael Nutter hadn’t ordered the closing of seven fire companies. That argument isn’t playing too well in the mayor’s office.
Below are excerpts from Alan Tu’s story on WHYY’s website It’s Our City:
McBride told It’s Our City that because of the loss of a fire engines located in fire houses at the 4th & Arch streets station and Bainbridge & Broad streets that remaining fire companies are having to make more runs. In fact, McBride said “neither one of the trucks (Engine 42 and Ladder 9) would have left the station if the cuts hadn’t been made.” Both fire vehicles are stationed at 21st and Market streets.
The Mayor’s Press Secretary, Doug Oliver called McBride’s contention that the budget cuts were somehow to blame as “Utterly ridiculous.” Oliver says it’s “far fetched” to think a budget decision is the cause of a traffic accident. He said, “A more likely reason is that they didn’t see other.”
He took one last swipe at McBride, by saying that for anyone to be posturing during this budget crisis is something people should “seek to avoid.”
