Detroit firefighters are sounding the alarm about inadequate equipment and believe it's putting lives at risk.
Currently, two of the six squads are out of service due to mechanical issues, WDIV reported.
The equipment has been transferred to engines, but firefighters say there's not enough space for all of it.
A representative from the Detroit Fire Fighters Association spoke of an incident in which crews didn't have all the proper equipment when they got to a wreck.
“They sent squad 5 somewhere and when it got there, they had to say send us another squad that had some of the equipment on it,” the representative said.
This past weekend, Ladder 23 had a tire come off. And, in February, the same thing happened on an engine.
“They’re like, ‘Hey we’re getting it fixed, it’ll get fixed.’ You know, ‘that can’t happen, that shouldn’t have happened,’ blah, blah blah. It’s the same rhetoric,” Detroit Fire Fighters Association President Tom Gehart said
The Detroit Fire Department issued the following statement to the station:
”Squad 1 and Squad 5 are in the shop for repairs and, according to our vendors, should be back in service by the end of the week. We recognize that the fire engines currently being used by Squads 1 and 5 do not have as much storage space as their usual Squad vehicles. This is not ideal, but it is temporary. The Squads in our fleet were designed to carry all of the equipment issued to each squad company, and they do. We currently have specs for the purchase of some replacement squads that have been approved by our fleet steering committee. We are told that financing should be in place and bids should be out for these new vehicles by the end of the year.”
