WTFX
Reprinted with Permission

The Philadelphia fire department is planning to temporarily take three companies out of service every day due to the city's budget woes.


Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers is calling the rotating closures "brownouts" and says they should save about $4 million.

Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers told Fox 29 the city plans to shutdown about six companies a day. That's three per shift. The companies will be determined based on size and location to other fire facilities.

Ayers says public safety shouldn't be jeopardized because the city actually closes several companies a day now for training.

A schedule of what companies will be closed and when will be released next week. Closures will save about $4 million in overtime.

They will start Aug. 2. Ayers says firefighters in companies that were closed for a shift would be reassigned to another company for that shift. Those reassignments would otherwise have been filled by a firefighter on
overtime.

Ayers say the changes won't compromise safety. But the president of the firefighters' union, Bill Gault, says he worries that response times will be increased. The city has 56 fire companies. Ayers says 23 will be part of the rolling brownouts.