The Uniontown Bureau Of Fire is a combination fire department providing a number of emergency and non emergency services to the citizens, property owners, workplaces, and businesses of the city of Uniontown. Services include, but are not limited to, fire or rescue response, emergency medical services, hazard mitigation, disaster response both natural and man made, and fire prevention activities. The Fire Department consists of 13 career fire personnel who are employed by the city of Uniontown, volunteer members including active, life, and contributing, and a non profit ambulance corps staffed 24 hours providing advanced life support ambulance service. Career personnel employed by the city make up the membership of I.A.F.F. Local L-0955. The volunteer membership belongs to one of 3 companies (although all 3 companies function as one department on emergency scenes) which are the Union Hose Company, the Keystone Fire Company, and the Chief Williams Hook and Ladder Company.
The city has a rich fire fighting heritage and history. As with all cities in the 1800s, fire protection was provided by an all volunteer force. With the turn of the century came a growing borough, which later became a city, and the need for full time fire protection. Uniontown has had a combination career/volunteer fire department for over 100 years now. It is the best of both worlds and has been a way of life for the department for years. While in today's fire service there exists some dissention and even animosity in some combination systems (not all!), in Uniontown everything works in peace and harmony. Each side of the "house" is a vital part of the services and protection our Bureau provides to our citizens, business owners, workers,a and visitors. Where a chain as a whole is only as strong as each link, our links between the career and volunteer membership, and the ambulance corps employees as well, had been strong for years.
But as is common in the volunteer service, there has unfortunately been a decline in membership. Older members are now becoming life members who have put in their time. Younger members have other things competing for their time. In this day and age, it's not uncommon for both parents to work or for someone to have to hold 2 jobs to make ends meet. Combined with other family commitments leaves little time for the fire service. We are not faulting anyone for this, it's just a sign of the times. It is understandable and we appreciate our active membership's efforts to try to stay active. What's really bad is the fact that the doors aren't being beat down with prospective members. It has been a few years now since a new active member was taken in among the volunteer companies.
So, that means more than ever, there is a need for full time staffing to ensure services are maintained, right?
Unfortunately, for the past 2 years that has not been our case either! Never before had there been layoffs to the paid fire bureau, but in 2008, that all changed. It happened once again in 2009 as well. 7 men total were laid off by December 31, 2009. In fact, as of today, August 29, 2010, there are still 5 city firefighters on layoff. Also, one older city firefighter has since retired. The work load has been heavy for the existing men remaining! On top of that, we are now over 100 working structural fires for the year. Some have been contained to object or area of origin, some have had to be contained with large caliber streams. But the fact remains that over 100 times, a fire has broke out in a building to where the fire department has had to act. Each fire, even the ones confined to origin, obviously had the potential to be much worse if not for fast response and quick action! Many of these fires have been fires where hose has had to be deployed as well!
Now, with the need greater than ever for full time staffing, we are once again in jeopardy! As of August 25, 2010, the city has informed us that they plan to lay off all career firefighters by the end of the year and phase in an all volunteer force. An offer was made for the existing employees to stay on to answer calls on a paid on call type basis for minimum wage until the all volunteer department is deemed ready by the city. This is just plain crazy!
No longer will the department be able to provide the services it once did! The fast response will be gone! Imagine trying to get volunteer members through a busy downtown to staff apparatus, then add the travel time from the station to the scene on top of that! Lives and property are at stake! Uniontown is a dense populated city, with a population density of over 6,000 people per square mile. We have large, older homes that present great exposure problems. We have nearly 40 buildings 4 floors or higher, many of these being between 6 and 12 stories. Our highest building is 150' in height, and a number of others are over 100' high. Many of these high rises house elderly. And many of them have limited area sprinklers or none at all. Our downtown and surrounding area also has 40 buildings that are 3 floors, commonly referred to as "taxpayers". These buildings are old, with wood interior structural members, and many are not sprinkled as well. We also protect many county offices, professional offices, the county courthouse, county jail, and a number of public and private schools. We also protect mercantile occupancies including downtown shops and a large shopping center. Our city population more than doubles during the work week due to working commuters as well. All this is in great jeopardy now! No longer will we be able to ensure fast response, or ability to meet standards such as the O.S.H.A. 2 in 2 out rule or the NFPA 1710 standard. Our service level will be reduced to a minimum!
Please check out the following links to learn more about this terrible situation!
http://www.iaffconvention2010.com/items/Uniontown.pdf
http://www.iaffconvention2010.com/index.cfm?§ionId=101
http://www.ppffa.org/index.cfm?zone=/unionactive/view_article.cfm&HomeID=173307
http://www.ppffa.org
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/fayette/24788091/detail.html
