Claims of slow response to fire are false

A Feb. 14 article reported on the local firefighter union President Joe Galli's claims that recent staffing changes in the Elgin Fire Department caused a delay in responding to a fire on Jan. 21. Mr. Galli's statements are false and misleading.

Safety remains the top priority of the city of Elgin and the Elgin Fire Department, not only for the community, but for the firefighters as well. Fifteen firefighters provided an initial incident response within the eight-minute travel standard set by the National Fire Protection Association. These industry standards serve as a benchmark for fire departments across the nation.

Galli claims that recent staffing changes were the reason a fire engine ran out of water. Computer-aided dispatch data shows that two additional fire engines had arrived on the scene more than two minutes before the first fire engine reported running out of water.

Galli was not at the Jan. 21 fire and as such can do nothing more than speculate as to decisions being made during the emergency response by the incident commander and the more than 20 other firefighters.

Galli understands the fire service well enough to know that focusing on a single variable during an incident, while ignoring the overall emergency response, is not how the incident is ultimately evaluated.

The Elgin Fire Department's staffing changes save the taxpayers nearly three-quarters of a million dollars a year without closing a single fire station; without removing a single fire engine, fire truck or ambulance from the streets; and, without laying off a single firefighter. The staffing changes prioritize the staffing of the ambulances that respond to nearly 80 percent of the calls.

The city of Elgin is, and remains, safe. To suggest otherwise is a discredit to the exemplary work consistently performed by the Elgin firefighters.

David A Schmidt, Fire Chief

Elgin Fire Department