Failure in Providing 24/7 Fire and Ambulance Coverage
I received a tip that on Friday June 7 the Epping Fire Department had to respond to a mutual aid request from Nottingham because Nottingham’s Fire Station didn’t have staff to send out an ambulance. I was told that if I were to go to the station, I could see this for myself.
I promptly went to the station. There was one member of the department there (who was not the source of the tip I received). Firefighter Ross confirmed that he was the only person staffing the station and that the town did have to call for mutual aid earlier in the day because while a one-person ambulance may respond to a call, it may not transport a patient. The call Epping had to respond to for us required transport.
In 2022, Nottingham passed a warrant article to fund 24/7 coverage of two staff members at the Fire Station.
I think there are some fundamental misunderstandings here. Based on past reporting, it was reported that the FD did not switch to 24 hour shifts until January 2023 and was not "Fully Staffed" UNTIL March 2023 (with the 6 full time staff). "Full staffing" remained until around September 2023. My understanding is that Sunday had no coverage AT the station meaning that 24/7 coverage you talk about was never actually true. (People responding from home is not what was discussed). Can you do some more research on this? Late 2022 and early 2023 timeframe and find out if there were actually 2x firefighters sleeping at the station overnight during this period please.
Doug, you do some good reporting but when it comes to the FD you are doing a major disservice to your readers because you are not informed about how the system works. Did you know that other than the biggest cities (Manchester, Nashua, and Concord) EVERY SINGLE TOWN in NH RELIES upon Mutual Aid for any structure fire? Based on the 2022 Deliberative session minutes, when the ambulance transports to the hospital it takes the crew out of service for 3 hours. What happens if there is ANOTHER emergency in that time? There is no guaranteed staff and mutual aid is the only option. Does there need to be backfill? That means upping staffing to 4 at all times (Costs big $$$). Did you know that in addition to requesting mutual aid, Nottingham PROVIDES Mutual Aid to surrounding communities? Do you know how Nottingham compares to other similar communities on mutual aid? Did you know that based on the geography of the Town, Mutual Aid can actually respond to certain areas faster than NFRD even when staffed? Please listen to radio traffic so you can understand how the system works. You can do that here for the entire seacoast area (there are also many scanner apps): https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/28011
Finally, the way this article (and the blog is framed), it seems to try and point out a management problem, mainly with the BOS. The BOS are NOT responsible for the DAILY management of the Fire Department (including scheduling). They meet every two weeks or so... Simply not their job. It is however, the job of the Fire Chief, who need I remind you works for $11,000 per year. The Town did not approve increasing this amount this year and the Town is now getting what they pay for. Try running a business with full time employees and paying the CEO a fraction of what one of the employees makes... Good luck. IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE. Talk about the real problem. This blog presented that warrant article as a money grab. Can you see now that the Town needs to spend money on management to actually get results? Volunteer Chief with a paid full time 24/7 staff is nonsense... How do you even expect to be able to hire people with a volunteer Chief. Hiring is massive time commitment in addition to the many MANY other duties.
This is what happens when you don't fund Public Safety... Public Safety is compromised. (Yes the old Chief did it for this much. Old Chief is gone. Nottingham got a bargain for many years and many thanks for that.) However, there needs to be a way forward. There needs to be an understanding that Public Safety is an investment and you get what you pay for. (Past issues are past issues and do not solve the future, neither does complaining or dwelling on them). If Public Safety is important then it needs to be figured out.
I will say again, good opportunity to do a special meeting town meeting to get some more funding for staff and management on an immediate and emergency basis. If this is not supported then stop complaining and certainly don't complain when November rolls around and PD and FD are over budget.
This is not unique to Nottingham, or even NH. The entire nation is facing shortages of staffing in emergency services.
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240124-the-dire-shortage-of-volunteer-firefighters-in-the-us
https://www.wmur.com/article/new-hampshire-fire-departments-hiring-101023/45500151
We can be thankful that the mutual aid compact is doing exactly what it was designed to do: https://klingreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/NH_MutualAidOrganizations.pdf