Chester firefighters stretched and cramped and looking for a solution

Chester Fire Chief Matt Wilson shows the fire hoses that are waiting to be dried from a fire 10 days earlier. Photos by The Chester Telegraph. Click to launch the gallery.

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2015 Telegraph Publishing, LLC

The two-bay end of the town garage that houses the Chester Fire Department was quiet on a recent evening — a welcomed break from more than a month of non-stop action for the 17 part-time firefighters, whose main coverage area spans 89 hilly square miles in Chester and Andover.

In 2014, the Chester Fire Department responded to 166 calls. That was an all-time high — up 43 percent from 2013. With 43 calls between New Year and Feb. 4, this year has the potential to break that record by a wide margin. But even when the calls let up, there’s still plenty to do and Chief Matt Wilson says that a crew will be in that night to catch up on routine work.

“There was never a time last year that it was slow,” says Wilson. “I hoped that it was a fluke, but everybody was busier.” The greatest number of calls were fires (39), motor vehicle accidents (35) and downed power lines (19.)

Firefighters’ turnout gear hangs in the locker-lounge space, some waiting to be cleaned. Each set of gear costs about $2,500 – $3,000.

“A lot of it is weather-related,” says Wilson, adding, “It’s cold and if finances are tight, people may not be paying to have their chimneys cleaned, just hoping they get by and their number doesn’t come up.”

The increase in dramatic weather events also contributes. “Chester isn’t the same town it was,” he says. “Since Irene, we are prone to flooding and you don’t need much rain to flood.” And bad weather increases the likelihood of motor vehicle accidents.

Responding to 43 calls in 35 days would be difficult under perfect conditions. “Even the shortest call – an odor investigation for example – is a minimum of 2 to 3 hours,” says Wilson. “You might be 45 minutes on the scene, and then spend an hour doing the run sheet, cleaning and inspecting the truck and the equipment. If you use air packs, add an hour and a half to clean and inspect those.” The more difficult the call, the longer the time on scene and the more to do when the firefighters return to the garage.

A recent addition to the locker room is open steel shelving and electric outlets to recharge equipment.

The firefighters’ job isn’t made easier by the staff size in relation to the number of calls and by the uncomfortable working conditions.

“I need more people,” says Wilson. “It’s a huge time commitment, but you don’t have to do everything. Not everybody wants to go into a burning building. Someone who wants to drive a truck and operate a pump would free up a guy or girl for me.”

Not everybody is cut out to be a firefighter. According to Wilson, a firefighter also needs to be able to mesh with others, to become part of a family.

Chester has a “call” fire department, which means that department members are paid per call answered and for a limited number of drills. But they volunteer their time for many other aspects of the job — from routine equipment maintenance to clearing snow from the garage roof so the runoff won’t freeze the doors shut, to promoting fire safety at local schools.

The two-bay, four-door garage will fit six emergency vehicles. When firefighters spend the night during certain emergencies, they set up cots between the vehicles.

One persistently difficult part of the job is balancing the need for enough clean, efficient space for many of the functions of the department that nests in a cramped, dark and dirty garage that it shares with Chester’s highway department. The town garage is located off Depot Street just south of Lisai’s Market.

Trucks and gear need to be kept clean to function properly and last longer, but with no facilities to wash the turnout gear that firefighters wear and six trucks shoehorned into a two-bay garage, every move is a workaround. Limited by the lack of a hose-drying tower, firefighters must shift hoses around on a long rack to dry and prevent deterioration. On Wednesday, Feb. 11 hoses were still waiting to be dried from the house fire 10 days earlier.

Often during prolonged events such as fires, snowstorms or floods, Chester firefighters or those from neighboring departments who are covering for the Chester department when it is out on a call, must stand by at the station for long hours — even into the night — without any accommodations like a shower or comfortable place to sit or sleep, let alone eat.

An increase in state-mandated standards results in a greater need for training, but that can be difficult to do in the Chester fire station. In the second floor room used for training, containers are strategically set out on the old tables to catch the drips as warm air condenses on the metal roof. “If it rains on the metal roof,” says Wilson, “you can’t hear to talk.” With very little storage space, the department must stow equipment and supplies in every conceivable space – including shelves only accessible by ladder. And with no place to keep chairs for training, the department borrows them from the elementary school.

The cab on Engine 1, in the back, had to be shortened to fit in the garage at a cost of $50,000.

In addition to making local training sessions more difficult, the lack of a proper training room keeps Chester from hosting state sponsored sessions. Since these now happen in other communities, only a limited number of local firefighters can attend a single session. With training space, the entire fire department could attend at the same time.

Even the purchase of equipment is made more difficult and expensive by the cramped quarters. A standard fire truck is 36 feet long, but the town garage can’t accommodate trucks longer than 28 feet. E-One, the builder of Chester’s new Engine 1, had to shorten it to fit at an estimated extra cost of $50,000. The shorter trucks also preclude the use of “crew cabs,” which cut down on the number of private cars and trucks at a fire scene. And equipment that doesn’t fit in the garage must be stored outdoors.

Hoping to solve these issues, Chief Wilson has gone back to the drawing board on proposed new fire station building. Funding for a new Public Safety Building, which would combine fire, police and ambulance services in one structure on Pleasant Street, was defeated by voters three times, the last in 2008. The building cost had been reduced from $7 million to $2.5 million and with 1,729 residents voting in the grip of a recession, the margin of defeat was only 25 votes.

A plastic container, foreground, and a coffee urn are just two of the containers that the department uses to catch water dripping from the roof to the 2nd floor training room.

Noting that interest rates on municipal bonds are quite low, Wilson is working on an inexpensive and functional design that will help the department meet the challenges of increasing calls and more stringent standards while attracting more members to the “family.”