Block releases fire protection study, says R.I. needs to reduce costs

FIRE PROTECTION costs a family of four in metro R.I. an average of $1,400 annually, the study by watchdogri.org states. / COURTESY WATCHDOGRI.ORG
FIRE PROTECTION costs a family of four in metro R.I. an average of $1,400 annually, the study by watchdogri.org states. / COURTESY WATCHDOGRI.ORG

PROVIDENCE – Former candidate for governor Kenneth J. Block has released a study on the state’s fire districts in an effort to start a statewide conversation about fire protection in Rhode Island.

The data is available on www.watchdogri.com, his new government reform organization, which he said will be dedicated to performing data-intensive research projects to help support public policy decision making.

It states that the cost of fire protection in Rhode Island, which has 1 million people and 1,042 square miles, is approximately $332 million, with another $918 million in unfunded pension liabilities.

“Too many of Rhode Island’s fire stations are located where a fire station has been located for centuries. When fire engines were pulled by horses, it made sense to have more stations situated relatively closely together. But a 19th-century fire station system facing 21st century costs for equipment, maintenance, personnel, benefits and retirements is stressing local budgets and far exceeds what many other locations provide for fire protection,” Block said in a press release.
“It is my hope that this data will foster a statewide debate and dialogue regarding locally provided public services. Local and statewide officials need to come together to help reduce the high cost of local government in Rhode Island,” Block said.

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Block wrote that in compiling the data, a fire survey was sent to all fire organizations in the state, from municipal fire departments in Cranston, Providence and Warwick to fire districts such as Central Coventry and Cumberland and volunteer companies, including Lake Mishnock and Exeter No. 1.

They were asked for staff data, budgets, contracts and equipment.

Block wrote that Rhode Island’s 158 fire stations is more than the number of stations in Los Angeles, which has 106, and Chicago, which has 92.

Lincoln’s seven fire stations illustrate the mill concept, Block said in the report.
“The drive between many of the fire stations in Lincoln can be completed in less than five minutes and in some cases less than three minutes,” it states.

He said Lincoln, with 21,000 people in about 19 square miles, has six fire districts, each with its own chief, tax assessor and other staff. Combined, the town pays the chiefs approximately $350,000.
Statewide, fire chiefs are paid in excess of $3.5 million a year, he said.
Lincoln is not the only community with multiple fire chiefs – Coventry and Cumberland have four, while Westerly has three.

Block also found that within a five-mile radius circle of downtown Pawtucket, there are 31 fire stations, and that’s just within Rhode Island.

Block said that the number of fire stations and fire engines in metropolitan Rhode Island, which is the eastern part of the state, “is remarkably higher than just about anywhere else in the country, and Metro R.I.’s per capita cost of fire protection [ at $350.84] is far and away the most expensive that we have seen in the country.” Fire protection costs a family of four in metro R.I. an average of $1,400 annually, the study states.
He said the amount of stations and apparatus are reasons for the high cost.
“The fact that Metro Rhode Island has nearly as many fire stations, fire engines and ladder trucks as the Dallas and Phoenix fire departments combined is a strong signal that we might very well be over equipped,” the study states.
It goes on to say that Rhode Island’s “huge unfunded firefighter pension liability threatens a dozen R.I. communities with financial disaster.” Communities with large unfunded pension liability problems need to come together with firefighter unions and retirees to work out a resolution to this problem, the report states.
The report also states that Rhode Island “should take care to feed and nourish its volunteer fire departments. It is crystal clear that nationally, large departments with a mix of career and volunteer firefighters are by far the most cost effective form of fire protection.”

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