Center City Fire Renews Staffing Concerns from Chief, Union

By HANNA TADESSE
SUNY Institute for Local News
ONEONTA

A structure fire in an Oneonta center city multi-family residence on Saturday, February 14 has raised staffing concerns from the Oneonta Professional Firefighters Local 2408 and the Oneonta fire chief. The fire at 57 Maple Street required a mutual aid call to the West Oneonta, Otego and Franklin fire departments along with Otsego County Emergency Medical Services. Laurens, West Laurens and Mount Vision fire crews were placed on standby at the City of Oneonta fire station.

The building contained four apartment units, two on each floor. The single occupant on the first floor was evacuated safely along with their house guests. The other first-floor apartment was unoccupied. The pair of apartments on the second floor were under construction.

According to a Local 2408 statement shared via Facebook, flames spread from a second-floor apartment and into the attic of the residence, “creating challenging conditions and requiring hours of work to locate and extinguish hidden pockets.” In addition to the assistance from the handful of mutual aid partners, off-duty personnel had to be recalled due to the fire’s complexity.

“We do not currently have the staffing levels needed to safely and effectively handle even small working fires without relying heavily on callbacks and mutual aid,” the union’s social media post declared.

Oneonta Fire Chief Brian Knapp confirmed to AllOtsego that six on-duty firefighters initially responded to the incident.

“We [called] for all of our off-duty personnel to come back in and we got five additional firefighters to come back in, as well as myself and the assistant chief—so technically seven additional came back in,” Knapp said.

Firefighters were dispatched at 11:47 a.m. The fire was extinguished and personnel left the scene by 2:17 p.m. It took until 6:17 p.m., however, for all City of Oneonta Fire Department units to be put fully back in service.

Seven firefighters, including a captain, are on duty each shift. But minimum staffing drops to six when someone is off.

“In this instance, somebody was off, and we only had six at the time,” Knapp said. 

The chief also referenced National Fire Protection Association Standard 1710, which highlights the recommended standards of staffing for career fire departments based on risk level.

“At the very least for a low-risk hazard—which the building in question on Maple Street fits into this category—we should at least have eight on duty, four to respond with the engine and then four to respond with our ladder truck,” Knapp explained. “We don’t even meet that with our current staff.”

The NFPA 1710 also recommends 15 personnel as the “effective response force,” Knapp added.

“That means when we call people back in, we need them to get to the station, get on additional apparatus and get to the scene, and that’s supposed to happen within 10 minutes. We can’t ever meet that standard as well,” Knapp said.

The chief stated that handling the utilities is critical for firefighter safety, and staffing shortages risk that.

“Because we didn’t have anyone able to do that until we got more resources in, the electricity wasn’t shut off. And we did have two individuals get electrocuted as they were opening up walls,” Chief Knapp said.

Knapp believes staffing gaps are likely where the union’s concerns lie.

“It is a concern of mine as well,” he said, “and every year during the budget process, I try and address that to get us some additional staffing. It’s an ongoing issue for us, for the union, for me as the chief, because I’m responsible for everyone’s safety on these emergency scenes. I’m responsible for the public safety.”

Knapp stated that the cause of the February 14 fire has been investigated, but the City of Oneonta Fire Department is unable to release any information at this time. The Maple Street structure has been deemed uninhabitable due to the fire and water damage.

This story was created by student reporters through the OnNY Community Media Lab, a program of SUNY Oneonta and the SUNY Institute for Local News.