Gary slices staffing for Fire Department

BY CHRISTINE KRALY, Times of Northwest Indiana
ckraly@nwitimes.com

GARY | The city of Gary on Friday followed court orders regarding minimum staffing for Fire Department trucks while also cutting the department's manpower in half.

City officials said they were following court orders to man each rig with four firefighters -- a ruling reaffirmed Thursday in Lake County court.

But on Friday, the city closed four fire stations and took off duty the rescue squad, which includes hazardous materials services, firefighter union President Raynard Robinson said.

The department typically has four trucks and 12 engines running per day. Rather than staffing all of those trucks with the minimum number of firefighters mandated in the court order, the city has ordered the force reduced to two trucks and six engines in service, Robinson said.

The shortages left some neighborhoods with little or no coverage. Gary's Black Oak section, for example, now has no engines at all, Robinson said.

"They're going to burn these companies out," he said.

The city is entrenched in legal squabbles with its Fire and Police departments regarding cuts in pay and work hours aimed at helping solve the city's financial crisis. Mayor Rudy Clay has said his city will run out of money Oct. 1.

Lake County Superior Court Judge John Pera on Thursday ordered the city to follow a previous court order to staff each Fire Department rig with four firefighters.

Robinson said Friday he did not think there was much he could legally do to contest the reduced staffing.

"The citizens are going to have to stand up," Robinson said.

A couple of citizens, armed with signs reading, "Public Safety is 1st Priority," marched outside of Gary City Hall on Friday. Despite the meager turnout, organizer Dwight Taylor called the protest necessary.

"Public safety is paramount in any community," Taylor said. "Gary citizens must hold elected officials accountable."

Taylor said he and other organizers originally had planned on calling for Clay's resignation Friday but scrapped the plan to focus on public safety.