By Khalil AlHajal | The Flint Journal
FLINT, Michigan — Station 8 firefighters on the city’s south side had to travel less than a mile to save Dashawn Skinner’s McKinley Avenue house from an electrical fire two years ago.
But help might not be so close by in the future.
(Ryan Garza | The Flint Journal)Captain David Brelinski of Flint Fire Station 5 gets dressed to respond to a call to an abandoned structure fire last month.One of the city’s five fire stations could be closed on March 5 after tentatively planned Fire Department demotions take effect in a cost-cutting measure.
“They were there quick,” said Skinner 14, as he walked passed the fire station, remembering the blaze and contemplating having to depend on stations further north.
“If it’s a bad fire, It could take too long. The house could burn down.”
The damage to his home forced his family out of the home for two weeks but firefighters saved the house from total destruction.
“You’ll have to wait for another fire station to come all the way down here,” said Skinner’s friend Tavias Jackson, 16, as the two walked along Buckingham Avenue near Red Arrow Road.
“I got friends whose fathers who work there, too,” he said.
City officials again are eying at least one possible fire station closure as they prepare to demote 10 firefighters to help balance the city’s deficit budget.
A memo sent to administrators and the union said Station 8 will close March 5, although Chief Alvern Lock said a final decision has not yet been made.
“It’s an option,” Lock said of the memo.
Station 8 on East Atherton Road has the fewest number of calls of the city’s five operating fire stations.
The potential closure comes several months after firefighters rejected contract concessions that would have cut their benefits and saved the city about $1 million a year.
Mayor Dayne Walling said the concessions would have allowed all five fire stations to stay open.
Flint Firefighters Union President Raul Garcia has proposed an alternative that would involve rotating firefighters to avoid any permanent station closures.
Under the plan, any station left understaffed because of sickness or vacation time on a given day would be closed for just that day, with the remaining firefighters moving to the four other stations. Garcia said the plan could save more than $600,000 in yearly overtime pay.
“They’re remaining steadfast on the demotions,” he said. “They don’t seem to believe the savings were there with the brownouts that we put out.”
Garcia plans to appeal to a City Council committee on Feb. 23 in an attempt to gain support for the brownout plan.
But Lock said the city indeed is considering the plan as an option.
“That was always on the table,” he said.
Lock also said any station could be shut down if the city goes that route, even though Station 8 has the lowest number of calls.
“There are other considerations that go into it other than that,” he said.
Art Wenzlaff, head of the Southside Business and Resident Association, said residents are disturbed by the idea of losing their fire station.
“They don’t want it closed,” he said. “I know it’s very political and the there’s union bargaining, but if we can all get together a little bit, we’re talking about property and people’s lives.
“We want a fire station right here. We’re trying to maintain this neighborhood, keep it together, and we have had some fires.”
He said that even though the station gets the least calls of the city’s five, people depend on it for help
“If you look beyond fires, those folks also cover paramedic services,” he said. “Heart attacks happen all over the city. You’re talking about human life here.”
Firefighters from Station 8 had to travel less than a mile to save Dashawn Skinner’s McKinley Avenue house from an electrical fire two years ago.
“They were there quick,” said Skinner, 14, as he walked passed the fire station, remembering the blaze and contemplating having to depend on stations farther north. “If it’s a bad fire, it could take too long. The house could burn down.”
The damage to his home forced his family out of the home for two weeks, but firefighters saved the house from total destruction.
Walling said last month that he was considering two station closures and demoting 21 fire department supervisors to save $500,000 this fiscal year. That plan targeted closing two of three stations — Station 5 on Western Road on the city’s east side, Station 3 on King Avenue just north of downtown or Station 8. One of them would have stayed open.
That plan was delayed when the city postponed the planned demotions in late January.
