West Scranton got its firehouse back on a near-permanent basis Friday after city fire officials received permission on Thursday to scale back staffing requirements imposed by a federal grant earlier this year.
"Engine 7 has been closed about 82 percent of the time for the past three months, and it will now be open more than 90 percent of the time in my estimation," Deputy Fire Chief Al Lucas said Friday.
The agreement reached late Thursday between city fire officials and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will also allow for the department to station an engine company at fire headquarters again, alleviating the issue of slowed engine company response times to the Hill Section, which was recently exacerbated by the closure of the Moosic Street bridge.
The redistribution of engine companies comes down to one firefighter per apparatus.
As mandated language in the federal Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant - commonly referred to as the SAFER grant - that the Fire Department received earlier this year, four firefighters were required to operate an apparatus.
Deputy Chief Lucas had been petitioning FEMA to drop that number to three men per apparatus, which would be in accordance with a state Supreme Court ruling made in October of last year that, among other things, set the staffing requirement.
Having received permission from FEMA on Thursday, Deputy Chief Lucas said the fire department can continue to staff 23 firefighters per shift but can use them to man two additional engine companies in the city - Engine 7 on Luzerne Street and Engine 4 at fire headquarters.
Engine 7 has been a point of contention between the fire department and residents in West Scranton. Between July and September, the engine company was open only about 82 percent of the time.
Deputy Chief Lucas explained that the re-opening of Engine 4 at fire headquarters nullifies the issue of the slowed response to the lower Hill Section area by Engine 10 in East Mountain.
That company has long been unable to travel over the Harrison Avenue bridge into the Hill Section, which was an impediment in and of itself in reaching the Hill Section, Deputy Chief Lucas said.
But when the Moosic Street bridge closed on Nov. 2 after a motor vehicle damaged its underside, the issue worsened considerably.
In order to respond to the northeastern area of the city, Engine 10 had to either "come down what we call the 'back way' ... or they have to come all the way down and come down Cedar Avenue," Deputy Chief Lucas explained. "So it's quite out of the loop."
The 'back way' - which Engine 10 has used as an alternate route since the weight limit on the Harrison Avenue bridge was lowered several years ago - takes the engine from its station on East Mountain Road and heads north on either Elmhurst Boulevard or Leslie Drive to ultimately reach Ash Street, from which it can reach the East Scranton and upper Hill Section areas.
Either way, Deputy Chief Lucas said, Engine 10's response times are slowed by the roundabout trips.
The issue that the alternate routes presented is that the lower Hill Section area is left without an engine company in a readily accessible position. Engine companies typically function as the water supply apparatus at a fire scene.
Deputy Chief Lucas pointed out that the city's truck companies can pump their own water at a fire until an engine arrives and takes over, though that is not the truck companies' "primary function."
Thanks to the change in the FEMA staffing requirement, though, Engine 4 will be stationed at the foot of the Hill Section, providing a readily accessible engine company.
City fire union President John Judge said the change to the FEMA requirement is an improvement, though it is one that should have been made months ago.
"This is something that we told the administration they should have done months ago," he said.
Mr. Judge gave credit for the change to the West Scranton residents who put "pressure" on city officials to keep Engine 7 open more consistently in recent weeks.
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