Fire Station 21 doing more with less

The good news for Minneapolis' Longfellow community is that Fire Station 21 finally is back at full strength with two trucks.

That means fire and medical response times in the area should no longer rank among the city's worst.

But the bad news for the Fire Department is that the city budgeted only three new positions in 2008. That means Chief James Clack had to cannibalize from other stations to find the dozen firefighters needed to man the second truck 24/7.

Five years after state aid cuts forced Minneapolis to tighten the city budget, the Fire Department remains one of the city's most money-starved departments. Two other stations still operate with only one truck each, meaning that fires or other emergency calls in surrounding neighborhoods often get slower response than the national five-minute standard the city has endorsed.

Property tax support for firefighters has risen only 12 percent since those 2003 budget cuts, compared with 29 percent for the average city department, and 32 percent for police.

That's despite residents ranking fire and emergency services as the most important service the city provides -- even slightly ahead of police -- in a 2005 city survey.

Yet fire deaths and injuries continue to trend downward despite the tight budgets. The city had two fire deaths last year, tied with 2006 for the lowest number since at least 2000. Fire victim injuries dropped to 21, the lowest in that span.

But those firefighters are paying a price. Firefighter injuries shot up to 267 last year, higher than any year since 2000. That's a direct reflection of sending fewer people on runs, Clack said.

"It puts the firefighters at risk," agreed firefighter Tim Dziedzic, who lives just a few blocks from a one-truck station at 2701 Johnson St. NE. The other is at 5410 Nicollet Av. S.

Dziedzic has been making the rounds of neighborhood groups in his area to highlight their station's short-staffing, calling attention to the impact it is having on fire service. "I'm trying to hold their feet to the fire," he said of city officials.

The Fire Department was one of the first to cut its budget when state cuts in aid to cities looked imminent in 2003. The rationale was that quicker cuts meant fewer layoffs, but some firefighters took umbrage at what they saw as a cave-in by the then-chief.

The 42 most junior firefighters got pink slips. "That was a tremendous cultural shock for the department," Clack said. "We kind of pulled the rug out from under them on job security."

The department got City Council approval in 2005 for using overtime to keep a minimum staffing level of 96 firefighters per shift. But by mid-2007, fire officials lacked the money to maintain that level, he said. Minimum staffing dropped to 87 firefighters per shift last summer, and now is at 91.

So only three firefighters operate the department's engines instead of the recommended four, and four firefighters ride ladder trucks. Sometimes only three people ride its quint trucks, a pumper-ladder hybrid typically used in one-truck stations, rather than four.

Clack knows that council members hear more from constituents worried about garage break-ins or assaults than having a fire. But he says there's a cost from injuries and lost days that counteracts the budget savings. Dziedzic is blunter: "It's going to catch up with us one of these days."

At Station 21 on E. 38th Street, the equation is simple: "Fewer rigs means more runs," said Capt. Roger Champagne, who spent several years there before transferring this month. And fewer people on a rig means more work.

"You can still do it with three. You're not as efficient," he said.

With only one engine, response times suffered when a second call needed to be answered. Typically, a truck had to come from one of the three nearest stations. Sometimes, Hiawatha light-rail trains delayed backup units from the west.

Champagne said that Station 21 also did a brisk trade in medical emergency runs. It is known among firefighters as a "thumper station" due to more frequent calls that administer CPR to the elderly. So Champagne regards regaining a second truck as a boon.

Clack, Mayor R.T. Rybak and Budget Chairman Paul Ostrow are hoping a federal grant that the city failed to get last year will be awarded this year to pay for a dozen new firefighters. But the city will need to absorb their cost when the grant expires -- or pay it all back.

For now, Clack will move one of two trucks from Station 17, which backed up Station 21, to the one-truck Station 27 on Nicollet. That will beef up responses hampered by Crosstown highway work. But the move comes just as a $1 million remodeling project is wrapping up at 17 -- some of it to accommodate the second crew that now will move.