February 08, 1998|By Del Quentin Wilber | Del Quentin Wilber,SUN STAFF
The $3.3 million Fire Station 2 in Ellicott City has eight bays, a fire engine, an ambulance and a squad truck, not to mention a 1929 American La France fire engine on display.
That equipment and the spacious firehouse that opened in November reassure thousands of Howard County residents.
But firefighters say the county's firehouses and shiny trucks mask a chronic shortage of staff that has forced the department to respond to incidents with only one or two firefighters on an engine. Those firefighters often enter burning buildings without the appropriate support outside, they say.
"It's just dangerous, something bad. A firefighter is going to die," said Sgt. Michael Rund, vice president of the local firefighters union. "These guys are stressed out. They are going to fires without enough people."
James E. Heller, director of the Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services, would love to fill 20 approved positions, adding to the 228 career officers and 200-odd volunteer firefighters. They face an ever-increasing number of calls that has jumped from 14,688 in 1993 to 18,077 last year.
"There just is not money to pay their salaries," Heller said. "I don't need to know the statistics to get a real sense that engines are going down the road with only one firefighter, and that's not a wise practice."
But County Executive Charles I. Ecker, who appointed Heller, said the department is adequately staffed and doesn't need the 20 extra firefighters -- whose hiring would probably force an increase in the fire tax.
"Those positions will probably not be filled," Ecker said. "I don't think the health and safety of residents is in any jeopardy. We have adequate staffing."
The fire tax is 24 cents for each $100 of assessed property value in the densely populated eastern part of Howard, and 19 cents per $100 in rural western Howard. The last increase was in 1995.
Dozens of interviews with firefighters and officials and a review of department statistics show:
Fire engines are understaffed on 30 percent of calls.
Many firefighters enter burning buildings without appropriate backup.
Retaining volunteer firefighters is extremely difficult.
Firefighters say the number of personnel on fire engines is crucial to determining the outcome of a fire. Howard County recommends three firefighters on every engine and four on every ladder truck. About 40 percent of ladder trucks leave stations with three or fewer firefighters, data show.
Ecker rebutted those assumptions. "It's the number of firefighters arriving at the scene that counts, not how many are on an engine," he said.
Republican Councilman Charles C. Feaga, who's running for county executive, agreed: "They have backups that get there very fast. It's the number of firefighters at the scene that matters."
But firefighters in Howard and elsewhere disagree. They say that during the first crucial minutes, especially in Howard County, where the 11 fire stations are fairly far apart, it helps to have as many people at the scene as quickly as possible.
A fire in Elkridge demonstrated that point, firefighters said.
About 3 p.m. Dec. 17, a fire turned into two alarms because
firefighters in Elkridge were being fitted for breathing masks in Ellicott City and were not able to respond. A roving, community service fire engine was dispatched and arrived about four minutes later, with three firefighters, according to firefighters.
Even though backup hadn't arrived, a firefighter and his captain entered the burning building, firefighters said.
Besides being extremely dangerous, that action violated department two-in, two-out guidelines requiring that each firefighter inside a building have at least one possible rescuer outside. Those standards are now a federal requirement.
That fire led Howard County fire officials to request that Baltimore County stations in Arbutus and Halethorpe respond to first-alarm calls in the Elkridge area to relieve some pressure on the Elkridge station. But the request was rejected by the Baltimore County Fire Department last month.
At a Jan. 15 meeting of Howard County fire officials and state legislators, Heller said that if Baltimore County did respond to first alarms, it would only "put a Band-Aid on the problem."
A few weeks earlier, a fire had raged through an unfinished apartment complex in Columbia, causing $2 million in damage. The nearest fire company was busy with a chimney fire, forcing dispatchers to send an engine from Ellicott City.
That engine -- staffed with two firefighters -- arrived seven minutes later and another, also with two firefighters, was a minute behind.
They could do little to subdue the fire, which was already out of control, and waited for help to arrive. Had the fire been less serious or had there been someone inside in need of rescue, these firefighters would have been putting themselves in jeopardy, according to a firefighter who was at the scene.
