To the editor:
Thank you to the Lynnfield first responders and those from nearby towns who provided mutual aid to Lynnfield during the Stafford Road fire on Thursday night. While the effects of the fire were devastating, I’m grateful that the residents were able to leave their home safely. This is long but there is a lot to reflect on and pull together.
I wanted to share my thoughts on this through what I’ve learned in my time involved in the town’s governance thus far. The Fire Department has been operating utilizing an on-call model vs. full-time model. This means that after 6:30 p.m., there are two people always available to respond to an emergency and the rest are on call if needed. We have not modeled our staffing to safely (and this “safely” is referring to the responders’ safety) respond to a fire that requires four responders (an NFPA standard to have two inside and two outside) at a minimum. If there is an emergency after 6:30 p.m., then we are not modeled to respond to a second emergency without relying on another town to cover. The call for help on Stafford Road came shortly after 8 p.m., and the response to this fire relied on a call model that can delay response times in the evenings and overnight. In an article in the Lynnfield Weekly News in 2023, Fire Chief Glenn Davis described the problem:
“In response to a question from Select Board Chair Phil Crawford asking how many times the station has been unmanned in the last two years, Davis said it was more times than he wanted to admit.
He did note that the department has to rely on mutual aid, but described it as a ‘delayed response.’ He added that he does not know where the responders are coming from and that responses from nearby communities such as Danvers and Swampscott ‘are long, unacceptable response times.’”
Chief Davis also addressed fire response, saying: “Our last two structural fires, our turnout was dismal… Fires burn hotter and quicker than ever, so while 30 years ago the average time to get out of a house was 17 minutes, now it’s three to five minutes.”
Chief Davis is a very well-respected leader in Lynnfield, and for years he has been making the case to the Select Board and Finance Committee that the call model under which we operate is unsustainable — both because of the volume of calls and because of the lack of call firefighters. Many surrounding towns have moved away from this model. The call firefighters often have other full time careers outside of serving in this capacity or often seek out career/full time responder positions in other towns that have full career models. As a member of the Finance Committee, I’ve seen firsthand that this is a problem that needs to be addressed, and that we need to have a strategy as a town to get to where we fund a fully staffed, 24/7 Fire Department for the safety of our residents and our first responders.
As a Select Board member, this is one example of where I will begin to address lingering strategic issues within our town by prioritizing what needs to be addressed, laying out a strategy for addressing it, and being clear with our town as to what will need to happen to fund our town’s services as effectively as possible to set us up for success in the future.
Alexis Leahy
