Guest Opinion: What will be left of Fall River Fire Department?

Tommy Texeira

Posted Mar. 25, 2014

The mayor and the Fall River Fire Department seem to have conflicting opinions in regards to how many firefighters are needed to safely protect a city the size Fall River. How many men are necessary? The mayor has given a statement in his “Statement regarding the Fall River Fire Department,” and Fire Chief Robert Viveiros made a statement at the City Council meeting on finances (March 11). Let’s start with an excerpt from the mayor’s statement:

“The SAFER grant will be expiring this year and the current compliment of firefighters is at a level of 213. Through its work, the SAFER Grant Task Force has determined that an adequate level of staffing should be a compliment of 200.”

The mayor states that the city will be cutting 60 positions and at 153 firefighters, national standard response times will be met (which is disputed by fire department union officials).

 

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