By Dan Medeiros, Herald News:
RIVER FALLS, MASS. Nearly two months after a deadly fire at the Gabriel House assisted living facility exposed the perils of short-staffed fire companies, the city’s firefighters’ union said it reached a “tentative agreement” with the city to boost staffing levels to nationally recommended standards. And it’s working on meeting more safety goals for firefighters.
“It’s a great win for the safety of the citizens of the city and surrounding communities,” said firefighter Michael O’Reagan, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1314.
O’Reagan was among the firefighters who worked the Gabriel House fire on July 13 despite being off-duty, helping tackle an incident that saw about 70 elderly and physically infirm residents trapped inside. Ten people died as a result of the fire, and about 30 people were injured, including first responders.
The day afterward, IAFF members said most Fall River fire companies are staffed below the standard of four people per apparatus; O’Reagan said lives were lost because an under-manned fire department was overwhelmed. City officials and the union began working almost immediately to bring its 10 fire companies up to the four-person minimum standard.
“We agreed on six of the 10,” O’Reagan said. “And we’re going to be working on an additional four.”
O’Reagan said shortly after the fire, the city bumped up staffing, but talks evolved to “secure this in perpetuity.”
“The second there’s some sort of financial constraint, the fire department typically is the first place they go to cut,” O’Reagan said. “One of our major concerns was, how can we do this to ensure that this safety measure, this standard, isn’t just something that’s for optics?”
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