Mayor Catherine Pugh has promised the Fire Department an extra $1.2 million fire truck in her 2020 fiscal year budget, the department said Thursday, after the firefighters union warned that two out-of-service trucks in Northwest Baltimore could affect response times.
IAFF Local 734 President Richard “Dickie” Altieri said the city is seeing a “ripple effect” from repeatedly “pushing problems back another year.”
“It’s got to be consistent,” Altieri said. “You need a minimum of four engines, two trucks, and four medic units [each year]. You can’t deviate from the bare minimum.”
After the union warned, in a “PUBLIC SAFETY ANNOUNCEMENT” on Twitter on Tuesday, that a “lack of properly operating trucks” could lead to delay in response times, Pugh met with Fire Chief Niles R. Ford on Wednesday and authorized him to order a fourth truck in the 2020 fiscal year budget, Skinner said.