Budget crunch forces redistribution of Atlanta’s firefighters

Beset with budget cuts, layoffs and the loss of 130 positions in his department, Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin J. Cochran said he will redistribute some firefighters, a move he concedes could increase some emergency response times.

The plan involves moving some firefighters from areas in the city with fewer emergency calls to areas with more, Cochran said, partly because of a shortage of money for overtime pay. Cochran said he would not close stations as part of the changes, which could start as soon as next month.

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Kelvin Cochran

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Cleta Winslow, chairwoman of the Atlanta City Council’s Public Safety Committee, said she was unaware of the plan.

“This is the first time I am hearing about it,” Winslow said.

As part of the plan, fire officials are considering temporarily shutting down ladder trucks at stations No. 12 at 1288 DeKalb Ave. N.E. and No. 25 at 2349 Benjamin E. Mays Drive. A fire department spokesman said the same number of trucks still would respond to emergencies, though one ladder truck might have to travel a longer distance.

Cochran called the temporary shutdowns “brownouts,” a reference to a partial loss of electrical power, but not a full blackout. He said he would reveal more details about his plan this week.

“Because there are increased response times associated with brownouts there is no avoiding the fact … that the risk will increase,” Cochran said. “The risks are not as great from browning out [ladder] truck companies. The risk will become, I guess, greater when we get to browning out [fire] engines … That is why we go with the truck companies first to minimize the risk.”

Cochran disclosed his plans in an interview last week as he talked about how his department is dealing with a $13 million budget cut, from $86.8 million last fiscal year to $73.8 million now. The city made the cut to help close a $140 million budget gap.

Twenty-six fire recruits were laid off in the process.

The National Fire Protection Association calls on fire departments to respond within six minutes to a fire or medical emergency call at least 90 percent of the time. The standard allows a minute for a 911 dispatcher to take the call, another minute for firefighters to suit up and four minutes for the first unit to arrive.

The Atlanta fire rescue department met that standard 70.5 percent of the time in 2007 for all fire calls, according to the city. And as of July 1, the department has met that standard 70.3 percent of the time for 2008.

Atlanta Chief Operating Officer Greg Giornelli insisted the Fire Department has an adequate number of firefighters to respond to emergency calls to meet the national standards.

“Nothing about the current budget changes our ability to respond within the national standard,” Giornelli said.

Meanwhile, even though the City Council voted to shift funding in the budget to reopen Fire Station No. 7 at 535 W. Whitehall St. S.W., the Fire Department is not staffing it, Cochran said.

“The funding was placed back,” Cochran said, “but Mayor [Shirley] Franklin chose not to authorize it to be open because the revenue for the city of Atlanta is still on a downturn and her position is she doesn’t want to close it in six months or 12 months from now because of further revenue reductions.”