This is the story in the NH Register regarding this
NEW HAVEN >> Acting Fire Chief Matthew Marcarelli Sunday called the closing of any fire company at the Ellsworth Avenue station “reckless and irresponsible.”
Marcarelli said to his knowledge “no command staff” has sanctioned the closing of Squad 2, which is located at the Ellsworth station with engine 9.
He said neither Fire Chief Allyn Wright nor Acting Chief Ralph Black indicated that they had approved the closing of any company at this station before they left office.
Marcarelli said it has not been agreed to, nor has he been ordered to do so and the reallocation of personnel that would ensue would require a deployment assessment, which has not occurred.
He said a television reporter told him that he was directed to contact Deputy Director of Emergency Operations Rick Fontana on fire policy questions, rather than Marcarelli.
“Sounds to me like a gag order,” Marcarelli said.
The administration has proposed closing Squad 2 and putting one of two new paramedic units there in order to better answer medical calls with more advanced personnel. The other unit would go to the Whitney Avenue station.
Under the proposal, the 10 engines — one at each fire station — would no longer have to respond to routine calls where they administer basic life-saving skills before a paramedic arrives.
They would continue to respond when the paramedic units were tied up and for more serious calls, such as heart problems, as well as at shootings in the city, according to Fontana.
The deputy director has already been in a fight with the union for allegedly overstepping the boundaries of his position, something that the state Labor Board will hear this month.
Fontana has said the plan resulted from an analysis by the city controller, chief administrative officer, the Emergency Medical Services supervisor and himself, as well as Wright and Black.
Fontana has said on several occasions that he speaks for the administration, but Marcarelli speaks for the Fire Department.
Fontana and Black are cited in a presentation made to the aldermanic leadership in January on the paramedic units that lists the need to review strategy for redeploying personnel from current apparatus to meet the medical needs.
In December, the city applied for a $900,000 federal grant for a heavy rescue truck to take the place of both Squad 1 on Whitney Avenue and Squad 2 at Ellsworth Avenue, which apparently it did not get.
“The trained personnel from one of the existing companies will be redeployed to meet an existing need for additional paramedic units for medical response,” the application for the grant reads. It does not mention any more details on personnel or the potential closing of a company.
Local 825 of the International Association of Firefighters is opposed to the plan, charging on a website devoted to the issue that it “could delay firefighters getting to your home for a fire or medical emergency, all while decreasing your chance of survival and increasing your insurance rates.”
Harp has accused the union of irresponsibly spreading fear in the neighborhoods. The union has suggested that the city put paramedics on each engine, which would double the 20 who have recently been hired.
A rally organized by the union, with the help of some neighborhood residents, will be held in front of Engine Company 9 at 120 Ellsworth Ave. at 4 p.m. today. Marcarelli said he will be there.
Attempts to remove apparatus in previous years failed and the topic is always an emotional one even though there is a consensus that something has to be done about the medical calls.
Laurence Grotheer, spokeman for Harp, says the plan to increase paramedic services to residents will not negatively impact its ability to provide fire service, while it greatly improves emergency medical care for residents.
“It doesn’t impact the city’s preparedness in terms of fire safety. This is a data-driven plan to address the need for better medical responses because nearly 80 percent of the calls are medical,” said Grotheer said.
Grotheer accompanied Fontana to a recent meeting about the proposed staffing changes with the Editorial Board of the New Haven Register.
Fontana addressed the issues raised by Battalion Chief Frank Ricci, who is president of the local.
They center on Engine Company 9, which now houses a fire engine, also referred to as Engine 9; a batallion chief’s vehicle and Squad 2, one of two heavy rescue trucks that carry extrication equipment and hazmat gear and respond citywide.
Squad 1 is located at Engine 8 on Whitney Avenue and it would remain there as a consolidated citywide resource.
In 2011, the fire union and the city signed a contract that gave the fire chief the right to re-deploy personnel from one engine company, which is four employees, for the purposes of staffing two additional advanced life-support vehicles, which is a paramedic unit or paramedic ambulance.
New Haven currently has one paramedic unit and an ambulance and plans to have at least three ambulances, possibly four to serve the city. Ambulances give the city the ability to transport patients to the hospital.
Now, on average, New Haven calls for ambulance service from neighboring towns some 12 times a month when American Medical Response is tied up, according to Fontana.
The union says the city can’t decide to shut down a squad, rather than an engine to carry out its plans.
On the Local 825 website, however, it says a squad “can either function as a engine company or a truck company” depending on the needs of the incident commander. Ricci said that is a secondary function and the city will violate another section of the contract if it puts Squad 2 off duty.
That section says the city will operate with no less than 18 companies, including two squads, 10 engines, four ladder trucks and two emergency units.
The city has already hired twenty paramedics, who will also be trained as firefighters. Those who pass the background check will start that training in early October.
Fontana said the second squad was added in 2000 when fire incidents almost doubled to 9,288 that year. He said it was never changed even though they have not been that high since. The deputy director said Brooklyn, New York, only has one tactical squad.
Fontana said the proposed changes are driven by the high number of medical calls to the Fire Department, the heavy burden on the current two paramedic units and the change in demographics, which projects an aging population.
The ambulance located at Woodward Avenue on the east side of the city responded to 7,270 calls in 2015; the paramedic unit on Howard Avenue answered 6,104 medical calls.
Out of 25,561 alarms received by the fire department in 2015, 18,789 of them were medical calls, as opposed to 6,772 fire incidents, Fontana said.
This doesn’t include 14,000 calls triaged by the 911 center as lower priority requests that were answered by AMR alone.
Structure fires have been dropping for years with 347 in 1995 down to 76 in 2015.
Currently, a fire engine and a paramedic unit and an ambulance will respond to a medical call. Personnel on an engine can give basic life support, but only a paramedic can administer more advanced techniques.
They include “giving medications, starting an intravenous line, providing advanced airway management for patients and learning to resuscitate and support patients with significant problems such as heart attacks and traumas,” according to a training program at the University of California.
Fontana said ambulances don’t always have paramedics, which means the fire department paramedic will then have to accompany the patient to the hospital with an engine following to take them back.
He said directing the calls to the paramedics frees up the engines to deal with fires.
Fontana said all calls to 911 follow the same standard operating procedure in sending them to the proper unit or AMR. Ricci said it is safer to have the engine continue to respond in case the person calling in the emergency doesn’t characterize it correctly.
Ricci said the city’s population continues to increase and more apartments are being built, which means services should be added, rather than consolidated. Fontana said new technology is making buildings safer.
Grotheer said the paramedic initiative began in the mayor’s office.
Fontana said he is part of a working group that makes recommendations on “preparedness, responses and recovery. It says I will analyze problems. I will make recommendations and I will implement changes.”
The ultimate decision will be made by a new fire chief. The aldermanic leadership was recently introduced to Jersey Battalion Chief John Alston Jr. as the mayor’s apparent choice.