PORTSMOUTH, Va. — The union representing Portsmouth’s firefighters and paramedics is sounding the alarm over reported staff shortages
In a Facebook post, the Portsmouth Professional Fire Fights and Paramedics Association warned of "danger ahead," claiming staff shortages forced one of their emergency response units out-of-service.
"Today is a scary day to be a citizen, guest, or business owner in Portsmouth," the post read. "EMS2 responds to ALL major medical calls in the city (cardiac arrests, car accidents, shootings, stabbing, fires, etc). Today, because of staffing, EMS2 is OUT OF SERVICE."
The Association called for city leaders to "allocate proper funding" to the fire department, explaining "the only way to protect [Portsmouth]" is through adequate staffing.
Portsmouth City Council Member Shannon Glover said he reached out to the association after seeing the post.
"Our firefighters are on the ground, they're dealing with it every day. They have real-time issues that they want to bring forward," he said.
"I think it's incumbent and important that we as leaders hear those concerns, and see if we can minimize those concerns or take them away altogether."
Glover said Portsmouth's City Manager Dr. Lydia Pattis Patton scheduled a meeting with the Association's President Kurt Detrick and the city's fire chief about the issue.
"It is being handled. We're on top of it, and there will be a follow-up response," Glover said. "I believe in our firefighters. Every day they put their lives on the line to do a very difficult job to keep our citizens safe, and we as leaders in our city must do everything in our power to make sure they have the funding, the resources, and the support that they need to do their job."
Dr. Patton said the fire department is at "full complement" and they have 21 more recruits coming on board.
She said "every now and then - just like with any job," there are times where people may call off work for sickness or personal issue. She suggested that's what happened in this case.
The association said in a later post that the union has a "strong working relationship" with the city council, and its confident everyone will be able to "work through this staffing issue."
The post said the group is "very much looking forward to working with City Management, so we can fix this problem."