(NECN: Josh Brogadir, Lawrence, Mass.) - Faced with station closures and firefighter layoffs, the Lawrence, Massachusetts fire department is feeling the heat. The city has had to rely on help from surrounding towns to fight fires.
Wednesday afternoon, the communities got together to talk about their mutual aid agreement.
This is one of three closed down fire stations in the city - this one closed last month.
Today's summit topic - taking the mutual aid burden off other cities and towns - and for today, just a start figuring out what to do.
This old mill is just one of the 8 fires, accidentally or intentionally set in the past 3 weeks in Lawrence, MA - about the same amount of time since 23 firefighters were laid off, and a third fire station was closed.
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Let's not forget there's a financial overseer in Lawrence from the state.
"You never know what could happen one day they could have three fires, different houses, different locations and there's not enough people to work," said concerned Lawrence resident Dayana Nunez.
Other communities have been overtaxed by recent mutual aid requests - 15 just this past weekend some from 20 miles away to help tackle one fire on Friday and two on Sunday.
Lawrence Councilman Marc Laplante thanked all the fire crews for their assistance, listing Amesbury, Andover, Danvers, Dracut, Georgetown, Haverhill, Ipswich, Lowell, Methuen, Middleton, North Andover, North Reading, Salem, New Hampshire, Tewksbury, and Westford.
Some of those neighbors came to the table for the Greater Lawrence Fire Summit to discuss their concerns in this city of close to 80,000 residents.
Among the guests - leaders from North Andover and Andover.
"(Mutual aid) is definitely a band-aid, they certainly are way below staffing levels that they should have for the size of this community," said Andover, MA Fire Chief Michael Mansfield.
There is no reimbursement for mutual aid.
And so that's where this has become a burden on other cash-strapped towns and cities - not to the extent Lawrence is with its well-documented budget crisis - but a challenge nonetheless.
Take two examples:
North Andover helped with mutual aid 5 times in 2009 and so far 10 times in 2010.
Andover generally helps 11 times a year and so far has responded
7 times in just the last month.
So what to do? Lawrence's budget crisis is not turning itself around.
Three suggestions by Lawrence Councilman Marc LaPlante who called the meeting:
1. Funding from FEMA (with help from surrounding towns) 2. Find other cuts in the city 3. Regionalization of fire services
Lawrence's fire chief said ultimately the onus though is on Lawrence.
"Right now it's a very dangerous situation in the city of Lawrence for the citizens, for the firefighters, and for the firefighters coming in to assist us on mutual aid. There's just not adequate firefighting personnel in the city," Provisional Chief Brian Murphy said.
How has this changed? There used to be a 3rd alarm called for Andover to respond, now they are called with a 2nd alarm.
The next meeting is planned at Andover Fire Dept with the Essex County Fire Chiefs Association.
Some state legislators are expected to attend.
