Escambia County Professional Firefighters call for change in staffing and funding
FirefighterNation Staff
ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Florida – WEAR 3 News reports that three fire fatalities in one week in Escambia County are leading to a call for changes between the firefighters union and commissioners over funding.
“Our message for the past year has been we need to increase staffing and increase funding to address a number of issues within the fire department,” said Union President Nick Gradia told WEAR.
Gradia admits more manpower would likely not have been able to prevent the deaths in last week’s fires.
A Facebook post from the Escambia County Professional Firefighters called out Escambia County for its lack of resources impacting the response to the fatal fire at Med Pro Solutions.
Commissioner Jeff Bergosh requested the fire and dispatch reports from that fire.
“I think it’s premature for anyone to hurl blame at anyone else, particularly the county for a lack of resources when the fire report clearly illustrates there were a lot of equipment at the scene, plenty of firefighters, as many as 60 firefighters and 9 officers, so I don’t believe it’s a lack of resources,” Bergosh told WEAR.
Bergosh believes this tragedy should not be used to further labor negotiations
