Three East Cleveland firefighters were hurt during a house fire and the city’s fire chief told us they don’t have enough people to do their jobs safely.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in my whole life,” said Eric Skillern who woke up Sunday to his next door neighbors’ house filled with flames and smoke. Thankfully, everyone got out alive, but when Skillern saw just a handful of East Cleveland firefighters show up to the scene, he thought the city’s in trouble. “Somebody’s going to die because you don’t have enough people to take care of the situation,” said Skillern.
We asked East Cleveland Fire Chief Rick Wilcox if his current firefighters are battling fires safely. “No. I would never say that as a fire chief with the current staffing level as it sits,” said Wilcox.
He told us three of the five total firefighters on duty Sunday received concussions and neck injuries while fighting the fire on Charles Road yesterday. Another firefighter already had a torn ligament. “The only reason he didn’t go home is because he didn’t want to leave the department short,” said Wilcox.