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Nearly all Mass. fire departments fall below national staffing standard, union says
Fire engines or ladder trucks should be staffed with four members, the NFPA says. In Massachusetts, the average is about two firefighters.
Nearly all of the fire departments in Massachusetts do not meet national staffing standards, according to a survey conducted by the state fire union in the wake of the deadly fire at a Fall River assisted living facility.
Per standards set by the National Fire Protection Association, fire engines or ladder trucks should each be staffed with a minimum four on-duty members. In Massachusetts, the average number of firefighters on an engine is less than 2.5 firefighters and the average responding on a ladder is less than two, according to the survey.
The survey was conducted by Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts, which represents thousands of firefighters from 217 local unions. Based on the survey, PFFM President Rich MacKinnon said, more than 90 percent of departments don’t meet the national standard for staffing.
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Boston, Brookline, and New Bedford are the only communities that regularly reach the standard of four people per engine, MacKinnon said. He attributed widespread staffing issues to public safety budget cuts by municipalities.
“Firefighters do a great job with whatever staffing they have, but we saw in Fall River what can happen when you’re not adequately staffed to standards,” MacKinnon told Boston.com. “These standards exist for a reason. It’s proven research. It’s proven data as to why you need four firefighters on a piece of fire apparatus.”
The blaze at Gabriel House, a Fall River assisted living facility, killed 10 people and injured 30 others. Investigators believe the fire was not intentionally set and narrowed down the cause to either an oxygen concentrator or a resident’s smoking materials.
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First responders, including Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon, described flames erupting from the front door and trapped residents hanging out of the windows, screaming for help. Bacon also recounted firefighters seeing faces in windows as they arrived “and having to decide who they need to rescue.”
“Staffing was low that day,” MacKinnon said, who serves as a firefighter in Whitman. Of the 10 trucks that responded to Gabriel House, only two were staffed with four people. “Had those other eight been staffed, you would have had eight additional firefighters on scene in a timely manner to facilitate rescue.”
The properly staffed engines are also up to 30 percent faster than 2-person crews, according to data shared by the union.
“Every second counts,” MacKinnon told Boston.com. “Conditions can change so quickly that you really need to have that standard met and firefighters on scene mitigating any problems right away,”
After the fire, Governor Maura Healey pledged $1.2 million to Fall River to improve its public safety staffing. Her office also announced $5.7 million available “to support emergency responder staffing in eligible communities.”
“The residents of these communities need to ask the decision makers: How come my fire department is not adequately staffed to meet minimum standards?” MacKinnon said.
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