RI Town, Firefighter Union Continue Battle over Staffing after Blaze

MIDDLETOWN, RI—After the call came in Tuesday for a structure fire on Woolsey Road, the Middletown Fire Department chief and training captain were the first on scene in command cars, according to Middletown Fire Chief Peter Faerber.

But it wasn't until the Newport Fire Department engine vehicle arrived that fire knockdown could be initiated; Newport's was the first fire engine on scene after the Middletown command cars, Faerber said in an email; Middletown's fire engine and rescue wagon were out on a previous medical call.

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"Because our resources were busy, we immediately called for mutual aid," said Middletown Firefighter John Jordan, president of Middletown Firefighters Local 1933, in a phone conversation with The Daily News on Wednesday. "This is just another example of what happens daily."

The Middletown Fire Department's heavy reliance on mutual aid from neighboring departments is something firefighters attribute to a lack of adequate staffing of the Middletown Fire Department, The Daily News reported previously. And it's a sticking point in current contract arbitration hearings between the firefighters union and the town.

But while Jordan sees Tuesday's Woolsey Road response—which resulted in three people transported to hospitals—as yet another example of an under-staffed department that's forced to rely too often on mutual aid when minutes are precious, Town Administrator Shawn Brown, in an email to The Daily News, noted that "[t]here were two calls for service within the span of seven minutes [on Tuesday and the] response to the two calls demonstrates how well mutual aid works for the communities of Newport County."

The first of the two calls was for a medical emergency; Middletown dispatched a rescue wagon and fire engine, Brown said. "The second call was for the structural fire on Woolsey Road. A structural fire in any of Middletown's neighboring communities would have triggered a similar call for mutual aid at some level. In this instance, the call for mutual aid generated a response from the neighboring communities and resulted in upwards of 25 firefighters, including firefighters from Middletown, responding to the scene or providing coverage at the Middletown Fire Station."

A Newport firefighter was transported to Newport Hospital for smoke inhalation following the Woolsey Road fire, and "1 [house] occupant was transported to Hasbro Children's Hospital by a Portsmouth Fire Department Rescue and the second occupant was transported to Newport Hospital by a Newport Fire Department Rescue," according to a previous press release from the Middletown Fire Department. As of Wednesday night, Faerber said in an email that there were "no updates" on the two Woolsey Road house occupants who were transported to hospitals; he had said previously their injuries were serious. The Newport firefighter was treated and released from the hospital Tuesday afternoon.

Middletown received 511 mutual aid calls from neighboring fire departments in 2019 through Nov. 30, while the town provided mutual aid 142 times, The Daily News reported previously. "There are drastic differences between the amount of mutual aid received by Middletown and what is given by our department annually," Jordan said previously.

The Middletown Fire Department has 27 firefighters plus the chief, and the town has the the smallest shift size on Aquidneck Island. Each shift in Middletown has five firefighters, a shift captain and civilian dispatcher, but since one firefighter is often off because of vacation, sick time, etc., the shifts typically have four firefighters on duty with a captain on each shift, The Daily News reported previously.

If five firefighters are on, a minimum of two firefighters will staff a fire engine and two more will man the rescue wagon. The two on the rescue wagon could be cross-staffed to the ladder truck if needed.

"With this staffing that we have...when we get one call it usually depletes the department," Jordan said. If there were more firefighters on staff, the department could have rolled out firefighters along with the chief's command car on Tuesday, and firefighters would have arrived at Woolsey Road along with Faerber, Jordan said.

"When we say seconds and minutes count...it's a real life thing," Jordan added. "Every minute that goes by, that fire's intensifying...or that injury's getting worse [and] on a day-to-day basis we have delays all the time."

The fire department received 3,397 total calls for service in 2019 through Nov. 30, The Daily News reported previously. In 2018, the Middletown Fire Department received 3,829 calls for service.

Of the 2019 total, 2,495 calls were for medical emergencies. The rest of the calls included 353 responses to alarms; 197 to hazardous conditions; 125 to motor vehicle accidents; 13 to vegetation and refuse fires; 9 to vehicle fires; 8 to structure fires; 10 to "technical rescues;" and 187 other emergency calls, according to Chief Faerber's breakdown of the calls.

"We're going through negotiations [and it's] really inappropriate for me to even comment about this," Middletown Town Council President Robert Sylvia said Thursday when asked if the fire department's reliance on mutual aid for the Woolsey Road fire underscores a need for more firefighters or some other solution to the purported issue that Middletown essentially can't handle more than one call at a time.

"I'm sure this will be resolved, like it's always resolved," Sylvia said, pointing to work on the town administrator's part and active negotiations.

"The Town reviews departmental staffing and ability to respond to calls for service on an ongoing basis," Brown said in an email. "The Administration and Town Council have been discussing the matter because of an ongoing arbitration between the Town and the firefighter's union. The matter will also be addressed while the Town Council considers adopting its next budget."

"[The Woolsey Road] fire is a scary example of what we have been telling the Town for a very long time but to no avail. The Fire Department staffing in Middletown is totally inadequate," according to a statement attributed to Joseph A. Andriole, president of the Rhode Island State Association of Fire Fighters. "The Town Council, Town Administrator and Fire Chief have failed the residents and the Fire Fighters of that community, their actions have been nothing short of reckless...It took resource[s] from two other communities to handle this incident, what would have happened if they weren't available[?] [T]his is grossly unacceptable...I hope the events yesterday can be a wakeup call for Town leaders to do the right thing and to work collaboratively with the Fire Fighters to fix this public safety problem."

With additional reporting by Sean Flynn.

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