The city of Pittsburgh and the firefighters' union have agreed firefighters no longer must live within the city limits, reaching a negotiated end to an ongoing legal battle.
"This is a great thing for not only the city, the citizens, but the firefighters who serve here," Ralph Sicuro, president, Pittsburgh Firefighters Union Local #1, told Pittsburgh's Action News 4. "In order to work with the administration, Mayor Gainey's vision of diversity within the fire department. One of the barriers that has always been identified was the restriction on residency, both for the employee as well as for the applicant. We were able to reach a settlement that took care of both of those issues, all in one. Now we're going to be able to achieve a much more robust recruitment drive and hopefully achieve the diversity we're all looking for."