Joint fire command would help eliminate waste: Post-Dispatch

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The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in an editorial, calls it “encouraging” that Brentwood, Clayton, Maplewood, Richmond Heights and Rock Hill are talking about ways to consolidate their firefighting efforts, but says it’s unfortunate the talks are about unifying the command structures and not overall fire departments.

According to the Post-Dispatch, the five fire departments serve a population of 45,031, and the five fire stations are mostly within two miles of each other. Also that the departments are top heavy with chiefs and assistants.

The plan calls for consolidating the command functions into one management team with one chief, three deputies, three battalion commanders and two inspectors. Who will give up their high-paying jobs? The Post-Dispatch says that’s the big question.

“Clayton alone has a chief, an assistant chief, six captains and three battalion chiefs. Brentwood has a chief, an assistant chief, three lieutenants and two captains. Add in the fire department personnel from the other three municipalities, and it’s obvious that some coveted command positions will have to be sacrificed.”

Read the full editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

10 COMMENTS

  1. The various fire departments are on call for each other if needed and still are able to protect their own cities. Let’s leave it like it is, it’s working fine. Consolidation has been advocated time and again as superior to current usages, but nothing has been done and I am so pleased. Our police know the residents and are super fast to respond to calls and our fire departments are on the spot. I appreciate both members of these ‘first responder’ teams. Thank you.

  2. Fire district = Bad idea. Unified command = Good idea. They are both very different. You want your local fire chiefs reporting to their local city government but still working with other chiefs (unified command), not some new bureaucracy that’s tied to county politics (fire district). I am wary of anything that involves a financial arrangement with Brentwood city government.

  3. Beware of what you read and hear. If you look at the BIG plan, cities with two firehouses will be cut to one. Ladue, Webster, etc., the distance between the firehouses will try to be the same. If one, two or more do not meet this distance, they will in time be gone. Firemen will be working at other houses and the total number of firemen and trucks will be reduced. There my friends is your cost saving !! If big is better, why is the City of St Louis in such big trouble with old trucks, firehouses falling down etc. ? Once you give up YOUR CITYS Fire Dept. then YOUR Police and the other parts will fall in place. No accountability, no input, just a BIG group of people saying ” it’s not my job, I did not build this monster “. It will be too late then. You will never be able to put it back the way it was. Maybe I should say, the way it works for the residents, not the power brokers who are pushing this so we can all go down together singing kumbaya .

  4. Let’s not allow Maureen wheat’s unhinged comments to derail actual discussion. There’s a lot to be wary about in this merger proposal. At the very least the Post is not playing fair when they mention by name two departments that do seem to have bloated command structures but suddenly get vague about the other three cities. I assume this is because these cities have leaner command structures and that doesn’t fit the Post’s narrative.

  5. OH!!! so disagree———now abortion cuts future expenses and makes everything easier. Scamming brings in what is not immediately lost, but stolen none the less. Forging financial documents —-oh….that is a windfall if you know what you are doing. ======Don’t talk about other Cities and say how their ability to eliminate inconvenient expenses, then Brentwood should fall in line…. Stay on topic. BRENTWOOD DOES NOT NEED MORE BUREAUCRACY AND LESS INTERNAL CONTROL UNDER THE GUISE OF “a better way… THAT IS S***. I worked at a company downtown, and had need to call 911. The dispatcher said, you’re gonna have to wait…we have a lot going. Just wait your turn…Honest to the Lord this happened. Over indulgent OTHER cities do NOT define how B’wd needs to be run. I got a return call from our Senator—-Who is the next tier of State administration to report CHRIS THORNTON’S FECKLESS PLAN —i want an answer—-Doug Miner can e-me privately if he knows. This plan is WRONG. WRONG. WRONG. You will build a future public housing with all the “frills” you think people want to hear (Manc.-Hanley 6 story roach factory) but you will turn in the security we have come to greatly appreciate from our FR’s.. this is so you Chris….i Thought you understood that you are not King, just mayor—by a VERY minor vote. I am still looking for that “shock collar” with increasing voltage to remind you of your TRUE STATUS…. and it is not king…. I am so against bureaucracy and you are ALL ABOUT POWER AND BUREAUCRACY and secret meetings——I STILL WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHO DOES CHRIS HAVE TO ANSWER TO AS A CITY IN THE ST. LOUIS METRO AREA? peeved to no end. maureen

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