When the city of New Orleans announced furloughs for first responders would be ending, Aaron Mischler started hearing from fire firefighters.
“I’ve been getting a lot of calls, asking me if they’re being pranked, if this is real,” said Mischler.
As president of the New Orleans Fire Fighters Association, Mischler says the announcement form city hall Monday was an unexpected surprise. “It’s really good news to pass on to them saying go to work tomorrow, you’re not being furloughed anymore,” said Mischler.
Citywide furloughs started back in October to deal with revenue shortfalls because of the pandemic. Mischler says those furloughs created public safety concerns and didn’t help morale for fire crews that were already short staffed.