...cont'd from page 9
HELP SAVE FIRE STATION 9!
Dear Neighbors,
Don't believe what the staff says! Station 9, once downgraded,
will soon afterwards be closed. This is only a new approach
to pacify Hyde Park. Here is an example from the past to show
you how deceitful staff can be: Many years ago, when a similar
threat emerged and we got a unanimous vote from the Planning
Commission to keep Station 9 open, news came that then-Mayor
Jeff Friedman was going to vote to close it. He did not
grant us a meeting. So Dorothy Richter and I went to
City Hall and staked out the men's restroom, figuring sooner
or later Mayor Friedman would have to go. He did, we cornered
him, one in front one behind; he was not happy and told us to
give up, since the staff had told him that the Planning
Commission had unanimously voted to close the station. When
we informed him that the opposite was true, he was mad that
the staff had lied to him. Station 9 remained open.
City staff tells us that just a squad car at Station 9 will
serve us well. What is a squad car? The squad cars were
purchased as tenders to the new Quints trucks (a combination
pumper, ladder truck), they will return to their original
assignment once our Station 9 is closed. The squad cars by
themselves manned by only two firemen CANNOT enter a burning
house, but have to wait until a pumper or ladder truck arrives.
The grapevine has it that the little squad car will not be
dispatched to fires to avoid bad P.R. of having two men
watching a house burn. Their medical use is also limited since
they do not carry specialized EMS equipment, only oxygen and
maybe a defibrillator.
The doctoring of response time started many years ago. First there was a three minutes response time standard, measured from the time a call was received to the arrival of an engine at the scene. Then came computer dispatch and response time was measured from the time the call was entered into the computer, often minutes later after the initial call was received. Now three minutes is expanded to 3.5 minutes! I am in the possession of randomly selected current run sheets where over 2 minutes elapsed between initial call and dispatch; add that to the so-called 3.5 minutes response time and it becomes 5 to 6 minutes or more. Response time maps are now virtual maps, not verified by actual runs at various times during the day. FIRES IN TEXAS states that the majority of alarms occur between 4:00pm and 8:00pm -- so much for getting an engine to us during rush hour traffic. Let us look at the stations that are supposed to give us adequate coverage. There is Station 3 at 30th Street, it has difficulty with the rather steep approach to Speedway and generally uses Guadalupe to reach Hyde Park (during the next year we are looking at major construction on Guadalupe). What about Station 14 at Airport? It will not be able to get to us when a train is on the tracks, and it also has to deal with two major traffic arteries, Airport and 45th Street. Then there is Station 12 at Hancock -- it also has to negotiate several major traffic arteries: Burnet Road, 45th Street, Lamar and Guadalupe. Railroad tracks and major streets are considered by the City of Austin in its 1970 Fire Protection Plan as barriers that slow down engine response.
Another reason why Station 9 should not be downgraded or closed and closed is that our response system is today computerized. When there is a fire other trucks move into vacant stations to protect surrounding areas; they are spread out, so everybody has some coverage should there be another fire or more trucks needed to assist with the initial alarm. This makes our inner city stations more valuable because they can respond in all Directions, in contrast to peripheral units. Most fires require multiple units, and taking engines out of the central city weakens the system.
