Excerpts from Fox6now.com:
With his crews stretched by major fires this week, Milwaukee Fire Chief Mark Rohlfing says he’s recommending deeper cuts to the department’s 2019 budget.
Rohlfing told the Common Council’s Public Safety committee that he’s preparing to eliminate one engine and the 15 positions that go with it. The department must find at least $1.1 million in savings. The proposed cuts for 2019 come on top of reductions in previous years, including the closing of six firehouses since last year. The head of the firefighters union said the closures were hurting response times.
Rohlfing responded to firefighters’ union president Mike Bongiorno, who said in two recent apartment fires, the Milwaukee Fire Department fell short of a national standard for response times. In one case, an apartment fire near North 39th and West Hopkins streets, witnesses said tenants had to jump from the building to escape the smoke and flames. The department had 21 people on scene eight minutes after the fire call, short of the national standard of 27 people, Bongiorno said.
Rohlfing said that Milwaukee doesn’t have a problem with response times, despite station closures and personnel cuts. His budget proposal will be reviewed over the coming months before it goes to the Milwaukee Common Council in the fall. At the end of Thursday’s committee meeting, city budget director Dennis Yaccarino said there would also be cuts to the Milwaukee Police Department.
thanks Dan
