Saugus fire station avoids full closure

SAUGUS – Saugus Fire Chief James Blanchard said the Essex Street Fire Station will not completely close, but will remain open sporadically depending on vacation time. However, he said the situation will be like “Russian Roulette” because “you never know when there’s going to be a fire.””If there’s no one on vacation or on a personal day, the station will be open,” said Blanchard. “But if somebody is out ? then we fall below our nine-man minimum and we use overtime to fill it. If we don’t have the overtime the station will close.”According to the proposed budget passed by the Board of Selectmen Monday, $450,000 is cut from the Fire Department’s overtime budget, essentially eliminating that line item. A total of $560,000 is cut from the department altogether, which is the biggest reduction in the budget.Blanchard said the department currently has three nine-man shifts and one 10-man shift, with three men stationed at Essex Street out of those shifts.If one of those firefighters takes a vacation, Blanchard said the two remaining at Essex Street will be brought back to central station in Saugus Center.”Overtime is only used when we fall below a nine-man minimum,” said Blanchard. “I don’t say, ‘You know what, call in four more guys tonight.’ That never happens here. The only time something close to that happens if they forecast a blizzard.”Essex Street Station covers all of East Saugus and the Cliftondale area, said Blanchard.”When you’re calling for an emergency ? Essex Street would be the first person to get there,” said Blanchard. “With that station closed you’re going to have to wait for a fire engine to come out of headquarters in Saugus Center.”Blanchard said that will also affect residents around Saugus Center too if a fire engine from central station responds to a call normally covered by the Essex Street Station.”So this part of town doesn’t have the coverage it needs,” said Blanchard. “It’s going to increase our response and reduce our ability to deliver life-saving services. We’re all EMTs here and some of us are paramedics. When you call 911 for a medical emergency, we get there first and we deliver.”With the police budget increasing by $250,000 to $5.39 million, Blanchard said he was upset that his budget was being slashed by 14 percent when other budgets were not cut at all.Crabtree said the increase in the police overtime is a result of properly budgeting for it, instead of being underfunded and then finding money from other sources like he said was done in the past.Police Chief Domenic Dimella said he used to submit his budget to the former Town Manager, who would then “slash it.””There were deficits built into my budget,” said Dimella. “I never knew where the money was coming from.””(Town Manager Scott Crabtree) does have to make hard decisions and it is a horrible place to be, but the major cuts are being made in the Fire Department’s budget,” said Blanchard. “Other budgets aren’t being touched. It was supposed to be an across the board type of thing, or I thought it was supposed to be, and the Fire Department, we’re taking a 14 percent hit. I can’t do that.”It’s this reason that Blanchard took his argument to the Board of Selectmen Tuesday night after several firefighters chastised Crabtree and the Board of Selectmen.”It was very heated,” said Blanchard. “We said a lot of things. I was watching from my house and told my wife I wasn’t going to go because I didn’t want to say anything I shouldn’t say. But as I watched at home I just got more and more involved and said, ‘I have to go down there and try and talk to them.'”Despite the tense ending to Tuesday’s meeting, Blanchard said he wishes “no ill will” on Crabtree.”I know times are tough, I don’t envy the manager,” said Blanchard. “I know he has a hard job, but I had to say what I said. I wish I hadn’t gotten that angry. But it’s hard. It’s difficult to accept this. To see $400,000 wiped out and where is it going? It’s a hard pill to swallow. You look around and