Mayor Newberry says there are four other station within 1.6 miles of Station 4 and the public’s safety will not be compromised.
Here are the true facts by Google Maps.
Station | Response delays | Distance from station 4 |
1 | 2 minutes | .8 |
13 | 3 minutes | 1.5 |
10 | 4 minutes | 1.5 |
6 | 8 minutes | 1.5 |
The times are from station to station and are close to the delays that will occur when Engine 4 is closed.
Seconds do count for fire and medical runs.
In less than 30 seconds a small flame can rage completely out of control and turn into a major fire. As a rule, a fire doubles in size every minute that passes without the application of aggressive fire suppression measures.
According to Annals of Emergency Medicine, “Predicting Survival From out of hospital arrest: a graphical model” November 1993, every minute that passes the chances of a successful outcome decreases by 7-10% per minute. So, if we just add the smallest response delay, your chance of surviving a heart attack has decreased by 14-20%.
Mayor Newberry says stations are routinely out of service for training or equipment maintenance.
The Mayor is correct in that we are required to keep our training hours and certifications up to date, so we can better serve our community. We also maintain our equipment so it will function properly when our citizens need our help.
There is a difference between taking companies out of service for training and maintenance, and the Mayor taking a company out of service to save money.
The Mayor says that Station 4 is not the closest station to Rupp Arena.
Engine 4 is the closest engine to Rupp Arena and it will take Engine 1, 2 additional minutes to respond. As stated above, seconds do count.
Station | Response time | Miles |
4 | 2 minutes | .3 |
1 | 4 minutes | 1 |
The facts by Google Maps, from the station to the response area at Rupp.
The Mayor says that Station 4 was closed for 2 months while being repaired and there were no problems.
It is true that Engine 4 was relocated to Station 1, but we had no choice because we could not stay in the damaged station. The one fact that he forgets is that Engine 4 was never closed. By closing Engine 4, we have a decreased depth of coverage for the downtown area. The downtown area needs greater coverage because it is a high hazard and high run volume area. There will be delays for the engine that is replacing Engine 4 and for engines from the farther stations that normally do not respond when Engine 4 is in service. It will take us longer to get to you!
What the Mayor did not say:
Will surrounding stations be affected by this closure?
Yes, the surrounding companies will have to absorb the runs of the closed companies, not to mention the response delays that will occur when the covering company has to respond from a farther distance.
This is a compounding problem because if we give the surrounding companies more runs to make, who is going to cover their district when they are covering runs for the closed company?
The answer is companies from farther away, which means more delays to your family in their time of need.
Is this the only closure that can occur?
Closures are not a one time deal. They will occur based on staffing levels and there is a chance that other companies will be affected. The companies are, in order of removal from service, E04, 242, 205, E11, All Bureaus, HM1, E22, L03, EC6, E05, E21, and E19.
