With budget reviews underway, and a public hearing scheduled for Wednesday, Mar. 19, on the Board of Selectmen‘s proposed FY 2026 operating budget, the Wilton Firefighters Union is soliciting support for the addition of two new firefighters to the Wilton Fire Department.
Gary Mandel, a Wilton firefighter and president of Local 2233 IAFF, hopes to have both local and state union representatives at Middlebrook School auditorium this Wednesday, voicing their support during a joint public hearing with the Board of Finance and BOS.
In its $37.4 million request, which represents a 4.4% increase over the current year, the BOS has budgeted $216,000 for two new firefighter positions. Fire Chief Jim Blanchfield hopes this will be the first phase in bringing Wilton’s four rotating 24-hour shifts from having six firefighters each, to eight within the next few years.
“I know the department has been active in their request and we’ve been very, very supportive of it,” Mandel said. “We were happy and pleased when it made its way into the budget through the Board of Selectmen.”
In crafting its budget, however, the BOS fell short of the finance board’s request to keep any increase at or below 3%, partially in lieu of last year’s large tax hike.
“The Board of Finance is still kind of wed to the guidelines, so the union has kind of taken more of a vocal role,” Mandel said.
The BOS was split on inclusion of the two new firefighter positions, with dissenting Selectwoman Kim Healy arguing that further study needed to be completed to determine whether the increase was warranted for the department, which currently has a $5,346,163 budget and will increase by 5.62% to almost $5.65 million.
Along with $3.1 million in salaries, the department is budgeted for around $850,000 in overtime pay, along with $100,000 in holiday pay.
Recent comments made by former First Selectwoman Lynne Vanderslice support Healy’s belief that more details should be had before committing to the cost, while current First Selectman Toni Boucher and the three other BOS members support the expenditure as is.
Staffing hasn’t changed in 25 years
“We’re trying to get the word out how important this is,” Mandel said. “This isn’t just an ongoing, ‘Let’s continue and keep increasing manpower every few years or anything.’ Our staffing hasn’t changed in 25 years.”
Like many departments in the area, Wilton uses four different shifts, each of which works for 24 hours; each of those shifts will have six of the total 24 firefighters in service to cover any calls within the town during that 24-hour period. Delineated as Shifts A, B, C and D, Mandel said the department will generally have four firefighters, one of whom is a captain, stationed at the headquarters on Danbury Rd. for a shift; the other two firefighters, one of which is usually a lieutenant, spend that shift at the satellite station in North Wilton on Ridgefield Rd.
“The thinking is down by headquarters there’s more of the nursing homes, the medical facilities, more of the commercial … Up north is more residential,” Mandel said. “That’s just the way we split it up. It doesn’t necessarily mean that down by headquarters you’re going to have bigger incidents than up north.”
The administration team, which is housed at headquarters, includes the fire chief, a deputy chief, a fire marshal and a deputy fire marshal.
“Either way you look at it, we feel that we’re understaffed,” Mandel said, unsure exactly how the two new firefighters would be apportioned to the shift schedule.
Up until 1999 the Wilton Fire Department operated with four firefighters on each shift, then expanded to six over the next couple of years.
As the union posted recently on its social media, the department responds to medical emergencies with two firefighters (“That’s 1/3 of our department.”), to motor vehicle accidents with four firefighters (“That’s 2/3 of our department.”), and to fires, alarms and other complex emergencies with all six firefighters. When all six firefighters are out on a call, the department depends on mutual aid from other town as backup.
While it’s been on their radar to enlarge their department for the last few years, Chief Blanchfield is now making that push, ideally looking to get eight new firefighters over the next few years.
“There’s a safety issue. That’s why we’re here,” Blanchfield recently told the BOS in a presentation advocating for the two new positions.
“Does it get us where we need to be? … It does not, but it’s a start,” he said.
What happens on a call — including injury to a firefighter
Just last Friday afternoon, March 14, Wilton Fire Department was dispatched to a vehicle fire, which was later upgraded to a structure fire when the fire spread to the residence.
In a press release, Blanchfield said crews were able to extinguish the fire and prevent it from extending further into the home. The fire crews “overhauled the area of fire, and removed smoke from the home.”
There were no civilian injuries but one firefighter suffered “minor injures” and was treated on scene.
Mandel was one of the firefighters on that call and he described how the six-member crew divided up the roles to cover the fire.
“We had to get a tanker with water ready to go with all the supply hose. We had to stretch a line to the car [on fire]. We had to stretch another line to the front door, in case it did spread. And then we had to do all the other work, which is make sure if there’s a rescue, and make sure we got to the resident and the owner all appropriately. There’s ventilation, there’s various other things,” he explained.
Heading the team was the captain as incident commander, overseeing the site operations — including safety and efficiency — as well as radio communications with dispatch and possible mutual aid and other supervisory responsibilities. With so much to do at the call to fight the fire, the incident commander also pitches in with the tasks.
“We’re all doing multiple tasks — we don’t have the luxury to say one guy is going to be water supply and one guy is going to stretch a line and that kind of thing. We all have to kind of jump around and make sure we’re handling everything.”
On Friday, it was the incident commander who injured himself.
Hypothetically, Mandel said, having two additional firefighters on that crew might have made the scene safer.
“That incident commander would not have had to stretch hose or pick up equipment, tools or anything like that. He would not have had to get closer to the fire.” Mandel said. “I’m not saying anything occurred that should not have occurred, but he was doing more than he otherwise would have had to do if we had more staffing for sure. You don’t have a crystal ball for what would have happened but I do think that would have prevented the injury.”
What firefighters say is driving the need for more hands on deck
Blanchfield said the volume of emergency calls has increased over 80% since 1998-99, although Healy and others are seeking additional details regarding the specific nature of calls received by the department.
Fire officials argue that, with larger homes being built in town, as well as several new high-rise apartment complexes that will be coming on line over the next few years, more personnel are needed to safely and appropriately combat emergencies, and have availability for simultaneous situations as needed.
Blanchfield stated in one of his presentations that approximately half of the emergency calls received by his department are related to medical issues. That prompted some town officials to wonder if hiring emergency medical professionals to handle that increase would be a cheaper alternative than more firefighters.
Mandel doesn’t believe it would necessarily be the best investment.
“We’re all EMTs, so in some ways you’re getting the best of both worlds,” he said.
Part of the issue is also never knowing when multiple calls will come at one time requiring firefighting skills, or if a larger emergency could require many people on hand.
“We really don’t know what kind of call it’s going to be and we really don’t know if we’re going to be able to handle all the tasks that are required … because we’re understaffed in that sense,” Mandel said.
“When we go to a fire call, we use up people very quickly,” he said. “At any given fire call we may have two firefighters that can actually go in with the water and hose, because everyone else has a job to do, and that’s moving the hose, looking for the fire, moving the hose in a different direction.”
Other town officials have broached the question of bringing volunteer firefighters into the mix, but Mandel doesn’t see that as practical.
“Volunteer is not a great answer,” he said. “One, it’s a huge commitment,” with dependability a key factor, at least until the town could or would establish a sizable number of volunteer recruits.
He also noted the training and equipment costs. “We can’t just take someone and put them in an emergency incident … It’s dangerous for the person, it’s dangerous for everyone else,” Mandel said.
Either way, he and others argue that the growth of the town requires more personnel to adequately and safely service the community, and for firefighters to stay safe in the process.
“There’s development, there’s additional businesses coming in, there’s manufacturing … The grand list is growing … We think it makes a lot of sense for us to get additional manpower. I think we would probably be advocating that even if it wasn’t growing as it is,” Mandel said, noting the challenge of having four- and five-story buildings to service.
“It’s overwhelming if you think about it,” he said. “Obviously we’re trained and we’re passionate and we’re gonna do the job, but we need to just voice the safety issue … From our perspective it’s really become a safety issue, both for the residents and for the firefighters.”