FMBA: Manpower Shortage Delayed Response to Ferraro's Fire

When in Westfield early Thursday morning, the Westfield Fire Department had to rely on Cranford, Fanwood and Mountainside for ladder vehicles – even though one of their own stood just 150 yards away, inside Westfield's fire headquarters, virtually across the street from the burning restaurant.

Budget cuts and staffing shortages had left the Westfield Fire Department with a six-man overnight crew – one less than the number needed to operate an aerial truck, firefighters said. Hence, as the blaze engulfed Ferraro's and adjacent apartments and storefronts, Westfield firefighters could attack only the flames on the ground, watching as the fire grew from a three-alarm conflagration to a six-alarm inferno.

“To see the place get destroyed and to have our ladder truck 150 yards away, it would have made a difference,” Westfield Firemen's Benevolent Association president Mike Sawicki said Thursday afternoon. “Maybe we could have saved the building.”

The Westfield Fire Department, which maintains a 32-person roster, reduced the minimum crew size from seven to six firefighters last June. The action was, in part, prompted by the department having exceeded its overtime limit, explained Deputy Fire Chief David Kelly, but it was also a result of continuing budget shortfalls at the municipal level.

"To avoid going over-budget we had to make changes in daily staffing levels," Kelly said in a June interview. He added that Cranford and Summit’s fire departments maintain five-man minimums.

Nevertheless, since last summer, Sawicki and FMBA members have advocated for restoring the minimum crew size to seven firefighters. They have also called for hiring additional firefighters to fill five open positions that have remained vacant since Westfield instituted a hiring freeze in 2010. Three of the vacancies resulted from retirements, the other two from the off-duty deaths of  and .

Council members argue, however, that Westfield simply can’t afford a larger crew.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have the money in our municipal budget,” Councilman Keith Loughlin, vice chairman of the public safety committee, said. “We have to do more with less.”

Loughlin was the only councilman who spoke on the issue. Others declined to comment, stating only that they remained “proud” of the department’s response Thursday and its continued service to the community.

Mayor Andy Skibitsky, contacted by telephone, stated, “I’m not going to negotiate with the FMBA in the newspaper,”

Nevertheless, in meetings, council members have argued that the continued decline of the town’s non-tax revenue, plus the implementation of the state-mandated two-percent property tax cap last year, have prevented them from providing more funds to the fire department.

During a , Councilman Mark Ciarrocca pointed to the town’s contract with the FMBA, under which firefighters accepted salary concessions in exchange for no layoffs. Westfield, he argued, is simply trying to preserve its paid fire department and avoid moving to an all-volunteer system.

Sawicki, however, has remained adamant. The fire at Ferraro’s, he argued, came just one month after on Mountain Avenue.

“I have never heard of this happening, we lost two buildings in a month. It relates to the cut in manpower,” Sawicki argued. At Ferraro’s, “we got lucky that there wasn’t anyone on the third floor. We didn’t have a ladder. If we had to do a pick off with a ladder, it wouldn’t have happened.”

Loughlin maintained that the town has not compromised residents’ safety to cut costs. “Our department meets or exceeds federal safety standards for manpower,” he said. “I continue to assure the citizens of Westfield that they are good hands.”