Commissioner warns of need to consolidate Glocester fire districts

GLOCESTER – Is it time for Glocester to consolidate its three fire departments – Harmony, Chepachet and West Glocester – into one for the safety of residents? Harmony Fire Commissioner Dave Plante thinks so.

Plante, a 45 year volunteer of the Harmony Fire Department, sent a letter to the Town Council urging them and the local fire districts to come together to explore options to address the emergency response needs of the town, including consolidation of the three stations.

“The present fire district operating systems, which have served Glocester for the past century, are becoming outdated and no longer adequately meet the needs of our growing community,” Plante stated in the letter. “In today’s fast-paced world, relying solely on volunteers paid/on-call members to staff our departments has become increasingly challenging. The demands of the profession have grown exponentially, and it is unreasonable to expect volunteers/paid on-call to work under such conditions for limited compensation. Our community is at risk.”

“There seems to be a need to maximize efficiencies,” agreed Town Council Vice President Steve Arnold. “That is not being critical of anyone who volunteers in this town, but I’m excited to get the band united.”

“As far as the district of Harmony, we’re all about unifying” Plante told the council, when asked if all three districts were on board with the idea.

Right now, he explained, Harmony is the only department with a full-time rescue unit. Combining the districts would better utilize the town’s resources, he said. If a rescue call comes in from West Glocester, he noted that it may take as much as 14 minutes to get there from Harmony.

“I don’t think that’s acceptable,” said Plante.

 Additionally, if a fire call is received in the morning, for example, there may not be enough firefighters available.

“You might get two trucks with four people,” Plante warned.

“As our population has grown, the need to robustly staff EMS units has become evident not only in the Harmony District but across the town,” Plante noted in his letter. “Additionally, the need for town wide fire suppression needs to be included in this discussion. A limited or delayed response could lead to tragic consequences. Any casualty, be it a citizen or an emergency responder due to insufficient resources, is unacceptable.”

Arnold recalled the council sending out a letter in January to try to get the departments together. The council has no jurisdiction over the fire departments, which are separate entities. Consolidation has been brought up numerous times over the years, but nothing has come to fruition.

“So when you contacted West Glocester and Chepachet, it kind of fell on deaf ears?” Councilor Jonathan Burlingame asked Plante. “They don’t want to talk about it?”

The other districts seem to want to, “kick the can down the road,” responded Plante.

“I’m not sure what the problem is. I don’t know if they don’t want to give up their kingdom,” he said. “I’m not here to take anybody’s kingdom. I’m just here to make operations better, to operate more efficiently. I don’t think we’re getting the services we deserve for what we pay.”

Plante said his biggest concern was what could happen as a result of inefficiencies.

“I’d hate to see some kind of a tragedy happen where someone dies,” he warned. “We have houses which are valued at $1 million in town or more.  If your house is on fire at 2 a.m., mom’s on the front lawn, the fire truck arrives with just two guys on it, and the kids are on the second floor, we have a problem.”

Plante added he wasn’t saying to hire a full-time staff, but they have to come up with some solutions.

“We’ve been talking about this for the last three and a half years, since I’ve been here,” responded Arnold.

Recently retired Harmony Fire Chief Richard Waterman previously said the town needs to think about consolidating Glocester’s three fire departments and, possibly, hiring full-time personnel to address residents’ needs in the future. Waterman noted that the only full-time staff in Harmony now are per diem rescue personnel, and firefighters are strictly volunteer. When fires occur, personnel and equipment from surrounding towns usually help to answer the call thanks to the Interstate Mutual Aid Program, which calls for local fire and rescue departments to share services as needed. That means if one district is fighting a fire and another breaks out in the same town, fire departments from surrounding towns come to their aid. The same is true for medical services.

All of the town’s fire departments are volunteer, which pay per diem for rescue personnel. Last year, the Harmony District paid $369,000 for 24/7 per diem shifts. Chepachet Fire Chief Dennis Huestis said his department responded to 1,083 calls, 800 of which were rescue related. Waterman said 80 percent of calls are for emergency medical services and only 20 percent for fire services.

At an earlier Town Council meeting, Chepachet Fire Chief Dennis Huestis noted that volunteers and per diem personnel get experience and training locally, but often move on to full-time positions in other towns, where benefits and better pay are offered. Just as the town has a paid police department ready to help, Huestis said there should be a paid fire department for the same reason.

Smithfield, said Waterman, solved the problem of being shorthanded by adding full-time fire and rescue personnel during the daytime in 1966. They added 15 people to three stations.

The council agreed to try to set up a meeting between the three boards to brainstorm ways to alleviate the problem.

Editor’s note: An original version of the above article initially identified Dave Plante as Dave LaPlante. We apologize for the error.