6 fire stations close for day; chief says city vulnerable

The head of the Atlanta Fire Department said the city was “at an extreme level of vulnerability” Saturday because of furloughs and an unusual number of firefighters calling in sick.

It was the second time in two weeks that Chief Kelvin Cochran sounded such an alarm in the wake of $15 million in budget cutbacks in his department amid the city’s financial troubles.

He said the cuts have hurt morale, depleted his force and resulted in idled firetrucks and understaffed stations. On Saturday, he said, six of the city’s 40 fire stations were temporarily closed until Sunday morning.

Cochran made similar comments on Super Bowl Sunday, when 27 firefighters called in sick. Combined with budget-induced furloughs, that cut the number of firefighters on duty to 131. The normal citywide minimum staffing is 147.

The combination of furloughed firefighters and 25 calling in sick on Saturday reduced staffing to 126, Cochran said in a press release. The chief said he didn’t believe his force was mounting any kind of protest, although the average for illnesses on a shift is 13.

“There’s no indication this is any kind of planned thing,” said Cochran. “Our firefighters are too devoted for that.”

Lt. Jim Daws, head of the union for Atlanta firefighters, agreed.”How can it be an organized effort if the number of people out, 13, only amounts to 3 percent of a department?” he said.

“The story here is the department is so understaffed [that] if people are sick they have to close fire stations,” said Daws.

Cochran said he called City Council President Lisa Borders on Saturday to alert her. She could not be reached by the AJC on Saturday. Stations closed until Sunday were No. 7, on Lee Street; No. 26 on Moores Mill; No. 12 on DeKalb Avenue; No. 22 on Hollywood Road; No. 30 on Cleveland Avenue; and No. 23 on Howell Mill Road.

Cochran said the short-staffing forced firefighters to bring a truck from farther away to fight a fire in southwest Atlanta on Saturday morning that involved three buildings. No one was hurt.