Alexandria firefighters say the city and its mutual-aid neighboring partners were left unprepared last week, but the Alexandria Fire Department and city officials say otherwise, reports alxnow.com.
The International Association of Firefighters Union 2141 said via Twitter that the city had only two fire trucks and no rescue apparatus in operation.
“**Public Safety Announcement** Currently Alexandria only has 2 trucks and 0 rescue apparatus in operation in the ENTIRE City – with none in the entire eastern half of the city. The safety of the public and our members shouldn’t be put uneccesarily [sic] at risk. FULLY FUND AFD!!”
**Public Safety Announcement**
Currently Alexandria only has 2 trucks and 0 rescue apparatus in operation in the ENTIRE City – with none in the entire eastern half of the city.
The safety of the public and our members shouldn't be put uneccesarily at risk.
FULLY FUND AFD!!— IAFF Local 2141 (@IAFFLocal2141) July 7, 2022
The report says that the department issued this statement:
“The Alexandria Fire Department maintains state-of-the-art frontline and reserve apparatus fleet. These apparatus are specialized vehicles that can require repair from time to time. On July 6, a heavy rescue squad vehicle required a repair that was completed in a day and a half and then was back in service. During this time, another reserve vehicle was placed into service. A ladder truck went out of service for repair on July 7 and was back in service on the same day. During that time a reserve vehicle was placed into service until the ladder truck was repaired. At no time was there a safety risk to our residents or city personnel.
“The department uses National Fire Protection Association Standards to meet service demands. Regionally, we also share automatic and mutual aid capabilities to maintain public safety within the region, in which various jurisdictions rely on each other for calls for service. The department continues to evaluate the growth of the city and make deployment adjustments to address the community’s needs.”
One Alexandria firefighter who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the heavy rescue squad vehicle was replaced by an empty reserve engine, which only had hoses, according to the report. The firefighter added that, as such, the new truck couldn’t serve as a true fire truck.
City officials say the department didn’t skip a beat.
