Support our firefighters

As a former 18-year city councilor, and an eight-year state senator, I am well aware of the need for essential public services. Citizens across Vermont expect their city and town government leaders to protect them; and that is accomplished by providing quality police, fire and public works services.

The Montpelier City Council is proposing to cut one firefighter and despite what you hear, this will impact response times to you, your loved ones, your friends, your neighbors, and the City’s businesses. This past year there were at least 300 calls that came in while the dept was already on a previous call — almost one per day! This means that a fire/ambulance equipment needed to be dispatched from a nearby town — delaying the critical response for the second call.

Here are the facts:

n A fire doubles in size every minute.

n A heart attack victim’s chance to live is reduced by 10 percent for every minute of delay.

n Initial call response time is a very reasonable four to five minutes.

n Second call response times will increase to over 10 minutes

n A heart attack victim’s chance to live is reduced 50 percent to 60 percent.

n Montpelier Fire Department fire/medical calls have increased by an average of 3 percent per year!

n Over the last several years, the fire department has seen a continued erosion of personnel.

n Fire department staffing is already at the lowestin its history.

This staffing reduction is gambling with our safety. I ask the City Council to be reasonable, thoughtful, and responsible by protecting our essential public services.

Jim Condos

Montpelier