Baltimore’s firefighter unions have organized two community rallies this week in an effort to stop cuts to fire companies serving Pigtown and Northeast Baltimore.
The community rallies, scheduled for Wednesday, are being held in response to the proposed reduction of two fire companies by Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young in his fiscal year 2021 budget. The cut would not reduce the number of city firefighters, but would instead shift staff from the two shuttered companies to other vacancies within the department.
The engines run by those companies would be moved out of neighborhood firehouses and into the city’s reserve fleet.
Richard “Dickie” Altieri II, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 734, said the closure of the fire companies would inevitably increase response times and leave pockets of the city more vulnerable to fire. Engine 4, one of the two companies slated for closure, is the first engine to respond to Morgan State, Loyola and Notre Dame of Maryland universities, he said.