The Roseville City Council made some tough cuts to its fire department on Wednesday night, cutting two shifts from each rotation.
In case of a car crash or house fire, four firefighters are currently dispatched per truck. The city wants to scale back to three. “It will reduce the efficiency of those truck companies by 50 percent,” did George Titus with the firefighter’s union.
He said currently the four firefighters work in pairs, that can’t happen with only three.
“The choice has to be made whether we go to the roof and ventilate or we go immediately inside and do a rescue operation. they can’t be done simultaneously,” he said.
The city is currently is losing around $2 million each year. By removing two positions per shift and it can save around $500,000 annually and it would be considered part of a pilot project.