Youngstown firefighters union says they’re understaffed and calls for change
Jon Racco, president of the Youngstown Professional Fire Fighters Local 312, is raising concerns about the routine closures of Youngstown fire stations during emergencies.
According to Racco, there are seven fire stations serving the city, a handful of which are being closed from day to day and the designated firetrucks are unavailable temporarily due to inadequate staffing.
“The fire chief and the city administration have historically blamed the inadequate staffing on firefighters calling off, which isn’t the case at all and we can show that,” Racco said.
Youngstown city officials declined requests for comment on the story and Fire Chief Barry Finley didn’t return calls seeking comment.
Why are fire trucks unavailable?
Racco explained that the Youngstown Fire Department simply needs more employees and resources to tackle the number of calls, more than they’ve ever responded to before.
“YFD has the same number of apparatus to staff every day that we had 5 years ago, but today we have about 20 less firefighters working here to do it. That is the only reason that trucks are closing,” he said. “Over that same span of time, our call volume has increased every year and we are responding to significantly more emergencies now than we were 5 years ago.”
So far in 2023, Racco said that Fire Chief Barry Finley closed a station thirty times. Most recently, Youngstown Fire Station 6, located on Shehy Street, was closed temporarily as well as stations 9 and 15, according to the union.
In 2022, Racco’s records show “a fire truck was closed 233 times. There was 59 structure fires while a fire truck was closed. In 11 of those 59 structure fires, the would have been ‘first in’ fire truck was closed.”
“The situation is absolutely having a negative effect on our response times and the overall service that we’re able to provide our community and it’s inexcusable,” he said. “We deserve better.”
Proposed solutions
Racco hopes the city administration refocuses on public safety by staffing more firefighters.
“This is dangerous for all of us, and unacceptable,” the union president added. “To solve the problem temporarily, the Fire Chief ... could use overtime to fill the trucks every day. They’re saving 20 firefighter salaries every year by not hiring. A portion of that money could be repurposed to overtime so the trucks can be open on a daily basis, but they refuse to use the money for that.”
Asking for change
Here are some of the posts on Facebook citing specific emergencies firefighters responded to:
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