As I read Craig Cox’s article, I couldn’t help but be impressed with his knowledge of the sometimes tough and always dangerous job firefighters perform twenty-four hours a day and 365 days a year. Still, the article does unfortunately gloss over the ax–wielding occurring across the river in St. Paul. Cox wonders how it is possible that St. Paul, with a population of 100,000 less than Minneapolis, can afford to have a fire department approximately the same size as Minneapolis’s department. Both fire departments respond to fire alarms and are EMS first responders. However, in St. Paul, firefighters also provide the emergency ambulance service for the city, to the tune of more than 25,000 medic runs per year. Although St. Paul is smaller in population than Minneapolis, the SPFD does have more runs, and therefore the need for added personnel. Cox also mentions St. Paul’s plan to hire laid-off firefighters from other departments. St. Paul’s fire administration is doing this out of desperation. Mayor Randy Kelly eliminated fourteen already-vacant firefighter positions. Although nobody was laid off, this move had the same effect. Staffing levels in St. Paul are so poor that on many occasions rigs have had to be placed out of service and entire fire stations have had to be shut down because there were not enough personnel to man them. Randy Kelly won St. Paul’s fire union’s endorsement in 2001 because he promised to make public safety his number-one priority. Since his election, Kelly hasn’t done one single thing to increase the public’s safety. If anything, he has continually sought to compromise safety through misguided policies—for example, his plans to cut three fire rigs and then build two new fire stations. Any firefighter can tell Mayor Kelly that fire stations don’t put out fires, firefighters and fire rigs do. Often I wonder if I will have the resources to put out the fires in the city where I work, and if the Minneapolis Fire Department will be able to protect my family’s home in the city where I live.
Chris Parsons, Minneapolis
St. Paul firefighter,
member, IAFF Local 21
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