BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) — Buffalo Fire is investigating one of its own fires. Early Wednesday night flames broke outin the fire department's repair shop leaving heavy damage to a fire truck and inside the facility.
But what does this mean for firefighting as city fire crews already face trouble dealing with older equipment?
7 News Senior Reporter Eileen Buckley talked with the fire commissioner and fire union leader.
“Obviously we're not happy about losing any of our apparatus for any length of time,” Commissioner William Renaldo, Buffalo Fire Department.
Something you don't expect to see — thick, black smoke billowing from the Buffalo Fire Department's Repair Shop in downtown Buffalo.
Fire Commissioner Renaldo told me unfortunately a reserve pumper was heavily damaged.
“We didn't want to lose that equipment. We can't afford to lose any equipment,” replied Renaldo.
City firefighters have been dealing with rundown trucks and equipment for some time and this only adds to the department's troubles.
“You cannot ignore the fire department anymore. We need equipment. We need the proper equipment,” declared Vinny Ventresca, president, Buffalo Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 282.
I reached out to the leader of the Buffalo Firefighters union. He tells me he believes this leaves the city fire department in a “precarious” situation.
“Since we were talking about this in January. I mean you figure in six months they’d have something; something would have been done and now here we are and our repair shop almost gets burned down. It's crazy,” Ventresca remarked.
But the city says it is purchasing 14 pieces of new fire equipment.
“Actually, we have a lot of new apparatus arriving now as we speak. We have a brand-new pumper arriving in August time frame. That's like $750,000 a piece of equipment. We have another aerial platform arriving in September that we ordered some time ago. That's like a $1.8 million aerial ladder. We have another aerial ladder that we took delivery of in February,” explained Renaldo
“Can you assure, to the citizens, that they will have the right response to a fire and that the equipment won't break down?” Buckley questioned. “I can't assure you that the equipment doesn't break down because everything manmade breaks down, so that those kinds of things happen whether it's a piece of apparatus that has just rolled off the production line or, you know, a piece of apparatus that is seven eight results. That’s all that happen, but I can assure the citizens that will be there when you call, call 9-11 we'll be there,” responded Renaldo.
But Ventresca says they know they’ve needed equipment for some time and there should have been preplanning knowing that the apparatus is in “rough shape”.
“Here we are again, another piece of equipment completely taken out of service and we're down to two pieces of equipment. We're down to pickup trucks and one reserve pumper and one reserve truck,” described Ventresca.
The fire commissioner noted that the National Fire Protection Association recommends replacing apparatus every 15 years.
“The average age of our fleet right now is 10 years for our pumpers and nine years for our aerial ladders, so we're well within the parameters,” noted Renaldo.
Meantime, the cause of Wednesday’s fire is under investigation, but Renaldo tells me it appears to be an electrical malfunction in a battery charging system. Damage is estimated at $750,000.
The city's Department of Public Works is offering some space at its Broadway barns so firefighter mechanics can work on vehicles. Mechanics will also go from fire house to fire house to make any repairs until they can return to the fire repair building.
