Prioritize public safety
To the editor:
I read with great alarm (excuse the pun) a news article re: Cape’s idle firetrucks having delayed response times to emergency calls due to “brown outs,” i.e. taking rescue trucks out of service to reduce overtime costs. Response times were quoted as sometimes taking over eight minutes rather than the average five.
This may not sound like a long time until you’re not breathing, or having a heart attack, or suffering life-threatening wounds, or perhaps giving CPR to a drowning child.
The example stated of the incident where a rescue truck from the Santa Barbara station had to respond to a medical call at St. Andrew church, instead of the rescue truck from Station #3 located at the foot of Veterans Bridge nearly across the street from the church because of a “brown out” is really disturbing. The article did say “the slower response time did not affect the patient” but would you want to take that chance with your loved one?
I strongly urge the city to look for other ways to trim our budget, so our firefighters can do their job without the stress that comes along with being shorthanded. Yes, my son is a firefighter, but of more concern, his father is a heart-patient.
Carol Jurkowski
Cape Coral