I am beginning to wonder if the concept of “mutual aid response” is in danger of becoming dismantled.  The idea of formal agreements between jurisdictions to assist each other when called dates back to the 1960′s and has the effect of providing limitless resources to respond to emergency needs.  In the 1970′s some municipalities, including the one where I worked, established an expanded mutual aid agreement where regular box assignments were designed to include the nearest stations regardless of which jurisdiction they were located in.  This was exetended out as far as box assignments were established, such as to the 8th-due company, for example.

This benefited the taxpayers in two ways.  First, it brought in additional help in a more timely manner without depleting all he local resources.  And secondly, each of the localities were able to strike at least one planned fire station from their planned growth because  of the enhanced coverage.  And that was a big selling point right there.  It became commonplace to have fire companies and medic units from 2 or 3 different departments arriving at emergency scenes rouinely.  Amusingly, for a few years I was at a station that had 1st-due boxes in 3 jurisdictions.  The firehouse was placed at the edge of the county’s boundaries deliberately to enhance the coverage under this scheme.  For some reason or another, many fire and EMS departments resisted implementing routine mutual aid agreements and stubbornly kept on handling it all themselves. 

Now with most localities practicing mutual aid coverage routinely, there are a few places where some irresponsible politicians are taking advantage of these agreements to transfer funds from fire department budgets to non-essential activities.  One recent example, but not the only one, occurred last month in Milwaukee.  After closing some fire stations and laying off firefighters, the MFD had a major-alarm fire where they brought in several companies from other towns.  While this is what the program was first designed for, in this case the city has begun using the agreement to literally transfer the cost of fire protection to the taxpayers of other cities.  Once the politicians found out that they can routinely use other cities to cover for their own financial failings, it as started to grow.

This is different from the previously-mentioned cross-boundary agreements where that sort of coverage is planned and designed to benefit all of the municipalities equally.  In Milwaukee’s case, many including the firefighters’ union, are accusing the city of shunting fiscal responsibility to other towns without coming to such an agreement.  Want to cut the budget?  Sure…just close some stations and let the other cities pay for our coverage.  That’s not going to go over too well with the other taxpayers when the bills start piling up for this policy.  Already we have seen news reports from different states where people are starting to question this “solution.”

The ultimate irresponsible move came late last week in North Providence, Rhode Island.  We posted the report HERE about the decision of the mayor to eliminate the position of Fire Chief.  It is his intention to decapitate the department permanently and let the duty battalion chiefs run the department by committee, even though they have never applied for, nor tested for, the ultimate administrative responsibility of the position.  And what happens if there is a big fire or other major emergency?  Why, he’s just going to use chief officers from other cities who will be summoned to become responsible for North Providence’s operations.

This is not just irresonsible, it is insane.  But it shows how far some desparate politicians are willing to go in order to avoid taking proper fiscal responsibility for their own municipalities.  This is just the sort of thing that can destroy the entire mutual aid concept, setting fire and rescue service back 50 years.

It is time for us to take our responsibilty now and get this equipment checked out.  I need to get some more coffee started.  We’ll meet back in the day room in a little while.