The fatal fire that claimed the lives of two men last Saturday has rekindled tensions between Chelmsford and the town’s Firefighters.
Rob Albon, President of International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 1839, released a statement to InsideLowell pointing to staffing challenges as a major concern, adding that “Chelmsford is not adequately staffed to handle ANY sized fire incident.” (Statement published in its entirety below)
In a separate, more detailed release, Albon lists comparisons with other communities and writes “Chelmsford now ranks #5 in Massachusetts for civilian fire death rate – with residents facing odds of dying in a fire that are 10 to 65 times higher than in the state’s major cities.”
Contacted by InsideLowell, Town Manager Paul Cohen issued a formal response, while pushing back on the union’s comparisons, while also indicating the tragic deaths were due to a lack of smoke detectors.
“The union’s press release does not compare Chelmsford to comparable neighboring communities such as Tewksbury, Dracut, or Westford; fails to provide details on the fire fatalities; and fails to mention the financial constraints on municipal governments,” Cohen wrote by text. “Also, unlike Tewksbury and Westford, Chelmsford does not staff an ambulance. Therefore, Chelmsford’s firefighting staffing levels are better than those towns. Sadly, the deaths appear to be the result of a lack of smoke detectors in the mobile park unit trailer. That should be the focus of this tragedy. Unlike residential homes, the Fire Department cannot require smoke and carbon monoxide detectors inspections on the change of tenancy for mobile homes.”
Cohen also pointed to a just released Massachusetts Municipal Association report titled “A Perfect Storm: Cities and Towns Face Historic Fiscal Pressures” to highlight the budgetary challenges facing the town. He and Fire Chief Gary Ryan also provided statistics listing Chelmsford’s fires, injuries, deaths and monetary damages from 2001-2024, along with comparisons between Chelmsford and surrounding communities in Greater Lowell and the Merrimack Valley. (see graphics below)
Chelmsford Firefighters are engaged in ongoing contract negotiations with the town. They are the only only union that hasn’t settled its contract at this time.
2 responses to “Tragedy Sparks Friction Between Chelmsford Officials and Firefighters”
Most of the deaths from fires that I can recall in the last 12 years happened off of 110 in the mobile home park and a condo
We have more accidents than we have house fires.
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Maybe we should have used the land purchase for a new fire station as opposed to open space.
Back in 2007 or so the CFD proposed staffing an ambulance. Sadly the town chose to continue to use a private service. If you look at the local towns with their own ambulances you will see their staffing is higher. Those FF’s could be used for a structure fire to staff fire apparatus. Other towns ambulances could be brought in for coverage. This is a standard practice.
This is a sad attempt to deflect the blame on the firefighters and their union. I was in the meeting that was held at the Senior Center. There is no way this town shouldn’t be operating its own ambulance and making the revenue and profit that the private service is making.
Sad to hear that our towns Firefighters are playing Russian Roulette with their lives at calls. If two firefighters are in a building NFPA says there should be two outside. How do you do that with two FF’s on a truck. Easy….. they don’t. They start the pump and rush to save lives while there is nobody there to rescue them should the worst happen and they get trapped.
Sad to say this has been happening going back to Bernie Lynch being Town Manager and Paul Cohen hasn’t fixed the problem
In his long tenure.
Maybe next time the FF’s should stand on the front lawn and wait for the 2nd truck to arrive before trying to save the occupants.