SAUGUS — When a fire broke out on Susan Drive last week, the first due companies for the area were on the west side of town, responding to another alarm at the end of Forrest Street. That, according to the Saugus Firefighters’ Union, left companies “behind the eight ball” as they raced to the scene.
While no one was wounded in the blaze, the union took to Facebook to once again call for the town to construct a third fire station in west Saugus, which they say would alleviate issues like the ones faced in the response to the Susan Drive fire.
“A West Side firehouse is a must-have for Saugus and has been for decades and if you think it doesn’t affect you because you don’t live on the West Side this is exhibit A on how it impacts the entire town,” the union wrote. “Saugus has been extremely lucky in recent history. Please don’t wait for a tragedy to happen while waiting another decade for a firehouse study. The time is now. You deserve to be adequately protected.”
Had the Susan Drive fire happened in the middle of the night, Capt. Billy Cross said, the outcome could have been much different.
“[With] how long it took to get water, those people wouldn’t have made it,” Cross said.
Talk of a third fire station in the town dates back decades, according to Cross, the president of Saugus Firefighters Local 1003, who said the fight for a west side station dates back to the early 1970s.
Now, Cross believes, it’s just a matter of time and money until Saugus has a third fire station.
“Saugus is a town that’s outgrown its fire department,” he said. “They’re trying to figure out how to pay for it long term. Right now we have the manning to do it … so we’re just gonna figure out how to pay for it.”
“It’s just a question of coming up with a plan to do it. What I think’s going to happen is it’s going to go to the voters,” Cross, a Precinct 8 Town Meeting member, continued.
Currently, the town has two fire stations, one at the public safety center on Hamilton Street and the other on Essex Street, adjacent to the Anna Parker Playground.
Cross said a third fire station has become a necessity, as the department is “spread too thin.”
“No one ever thinks fire’s gonna happen to them. But when it does, they want the fire department on a moment’s notice,” he said. “They want them to be professional, polite, want them to know what they’re doing and they don’t want to hear it that you don’t have enough people or we’re spread too thin, we’re all over town. They don’t want to hear that and I don’t blame them. But then it comes down to finances as well, we’re coming into a downturn of the economy, do people want more on the tax bill?”
A study conducted by consultants from Municipal Resources Inc. using data from 2015 to 2019, assessed the overall efficiency of the town’s fire, rescue, emergency medical services, and delivery systems. The study, published in March 2021, formally recommended Saugus move forward with the process of designing, financing, and constructing a new fire and EMS station in the area of town west of Route 1.
At this point, Cross said, he believes there is “definitely” enough support across town to get a third fire station, after a ballot question in 2003 asking voters to approve a Proposition 2 ½ override to hire 12 new firefighters failed. Cross attributed that question’s failure in part to the question appearing on the back of the ballot and also to a poor job by the union to convince residents that the station was a necessity.
“I think part of the [reason] why it didn’t pass back in the early 2000s was kind of our fault. I was a younger guy back then, I didn’t know what I was doing. I think today we’d get our message across,” he said.
Board of Selectmen Chair Anthony Cogliano has been a vocal supporter of the push to build a third station, telling The Item in August that with the town growing rapidly thanks to development along Route 1 “it’s going to be absolutely necessary to build that station.”
Charlie McKenna can be reached at [email protected].
