Nutter defends rolling fire unit closures

Mayor says Fire Department already does this when a station needs to close for re-training. Asserts Fire Department suggested the plan.

The planned rolling closures of Philadelphia fire department units has people questioning the Mayor Nutter’s decision. To save $3.6 million, four to five units will be shut each day on a rotating basis.

“When you call 911 we show up, that’s the bottom line,” says Mayor Michael Nutter defending the rolling closures of fire companies. Nutter says it is already being done seamlessly and was recommended by the top brass of the fire department.

“Our firefighters have to go through training on a regular basis we do this on a regular basis, take companies out of service so they can go to training. This is a management tool that allows us to save money and maintain high quality service.”

The mayor says the move will not affect response time of fire units. Councilman Bill Greenlee still wants to know more about the plan.

“In all fairness to everybody I think we need to get more information as far as exactly what that means how much they might be closed, that kind of thing.”

The councilman says there could be council hearings on the issue when the body comes back from their summer recess.