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Health & Fitness

Central Coventry: The Problem at Hand

The Town of Coventry, Rhode Island has been the center of the news for quite some time. With the Central Coventry Fire District being closed, citizens will be left relying solely on the other three Coventry districts or mutual aid. The Anthony district runs Engine 1, Ladder 1, and Rescue 1. They also have a small fleet of reserve apparatus. The Hopkins Hill district runs Engine 6, Quint 1, Rescue 6, Utility and Decon, and Brush 2. Western Coventry Fire District runs Engine 9, Tanker 8, Tanker 18, Rescue 8, Brush 1, and Unit 8. Western Coventry is, for the most part, volunteer which already adds time to their response. They do have two paid firefighters on during the day. What happens when the town is jamming busy and Western is first due to Central for a building fire?! Even if everybody is in service, it’s still a bit of a haul for Anthony or Hopkins Hill to get to parts of Central. The other side of the coin is what happens when there is a Code Red in Anthony and they have to wait for Western to get there because now Central isn’t coming?! Why should the citizens in the remaining districts have to pay because some Central taxpayers wouldn’t pay a fire tax?!

With all of the problems in the Central Coventry district, the town is losing or already has lost three engines, one tower ladder, two rescues, special hazards, a dive unit, and four boats. Plus, the Fire Marshal who investigates the fires and does all of the inspections, plan review, and fire safety education will be gone. Then you also lose all of the incident commanders. That is a large chunk of the town’s assets gone. Twenty-six square miles and about 25,000 people will be left unprotected. This is putting many lives on the line, both civilian and firefighters. Response times will be awful. Even with Central still open, mutual aid is still being utilized in great numbers. I recall one run in particular for a fire alarm sounding in Western with Western companies in service. Sterling, Connecticut and Foster were requested to fill in on the assignment. The really sad part is that Sterling beat Coventry in on their own assignment!

Some said nothing happens in Coventry…well, that’s just ridiculous! Coventry has had several major incidents since this fiasco has started. Coventry responded to two fully involved fires within five days…one of them in Central. 89 Colvintown Road and 290 Knotty Oak Road. Both of which rekindled. Knotty Oak claimed the life of one resident. Before that, a vehicle went through the ice on Raymond’s Point. Before that, Coventry had a Code Red in Wood Estates and a snowmobile accident on Johnson’s Pond. Those calls happened simultaneously. Companies had to be pulled from the fire to respond to the accident. The night before, a single car rolled over on Station Street causing entrapment. Jaws went to work and Life Star had to be requested to transport the victim. On January 3rd, Coventry had a Code Red on Shady Valley Road that went two alarms! Think about all of the Central companies utilized on fire scenes…now, they won’t be there. The mutual aid companies requested for coverage will then have to report to the scene. Then, even more mutual aid companies will be needed to fill in those coverage spots and the surrounding towns will be temporarily left shorthanded. That’s not counting all of the “routine” calls to service and furthermore, I just described the 2014 incidents as of March 10th. I didn’t even get into 2013. The objective of public safety is to keep the public safe…that’s not going to be happening in Coventry.

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These fire districts are not run like a professional department in terms of manpower, at little fault of their own. Apparatus are cross-manned. There are times when an engine company is in service with just two firefighters. That is not safe. It is ass backwards and archaic. Coventry is the biggest town in the state and yet one of the worst in operations. What needs to happen is a single municipal department for the entire town! Coventry needs four firefighters on an engine, at least two firefighters on a ladder, and two firefighters on a rescue. That needs to be around the clock! Every company should be Advanced Life Support. The idea of privatizing the fire and rescue services is asinine. Private companies, like I have said before, are just in it for the money. The training is not as extensive meaning there will be more room for errors. The purpose of this piece is not to blame those responsible. The purpose here is simply to look at the situation at hand, point out what is going to happen, and offer a suggestion of how to fix it. 

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