A fire department staffing struggle is forcing the city of Plymouth to reconsider how it staffs fire stations across the city.
Fire Chief Rodger Coppa presented city council members with several plans to increase staffing levels, that he said would in turn decrease response times.
Historically, the department has relied on on-call firefighters overnight.
"We give them a pager and at 3 o' clock in the morning, whether they have to work or not, their pager goes off," Coppa said. "They have to make the decision to answer that call or not. Unfortunately, that system is not very consistent or predictable." The chief said it can take the on-call firefighters up to eight minutes to get from their front door to the fire station. Then, he said, add to that several more minutes to gear up and dispatch to a call.