Firefighters at the city's Water Street station were forced to contend with a 90-minute power outage overnight Thursday into Friday, leading to a delay in response times to two different incidents, Local 1011 Union President Tim Carroll said.
However, a new custom-built generator already has been purchased and paid for, according to Mayor James Fiorentini. It will be installed at the station in late March or early April, hopefully bringing an end to the response-time difficulties faced by the Water Street staff. It had been purchased before last week's outage, when the Water Street firefighters were delayed five minutes as they struggled to get Engine 3 out of the station to respond to an accident in which a car hit a telephone pole. Those first responders then were supposed to be dispatched to a carbon monoxide-related incident.
Minutes mattered, said Carroll, when the garage door mechanism wasn't properly adjusted and didn't open correctly once the power went out.