Now more than ever, know where fire exits are and don't let fires get started.
That's the advice Muncie Fire Chief Sean Burcham has for students at Ball State University when Muncie lays off 40 of its 109 firefighters in response to a budget crisis.
"People should be worried," Burcham said. "One house fire and we're all tied up."
Before the layoffs, Muncie also decided to decrease the number of fire stations from seven to five and to decrease the number of medical runs the fire department makes.
Burcham said the mayor considered only budget and not safety implications when deciding how many firefighters to lay off.
Muncie Mayor Sharon McShurley did not respond to multiple messages left at her office and home.
The city is facing a $3.8 million budget shortfall this year because of new property tax caps set by the state.
Deputy Mayor of Muncie Dick Shirey said the city has not made any major capital investments in the last eight years, leaving equipment in poor condition. He said this means personnel is the only place cuts can be made. He said the mayor is doing her best for the community, saying McShurley is "doing better than anyone else could" with these circumstances.
Shirey also said the fire department is not the only place to get major cuts. He said the mayor's office, police department, street department and every other office also had cuts.
Shirey said because there were no capital improvements, the city was left without a ladder truck for months. He said that is "mind-boggling for a city this size," especially with Ball State and the hospital.
Burcham said the fire department just put a recently-purchased ladder truck into service, but would not be able to staff it with the cuts.
Shirey said the city has been hit with a "perfect storm" of financial crises. He said the city doesn't relish making the cuts, but the circumstances the city finds itself in doesn't give it another option.
"The mayor is very adamant that we have to attend to our core purpose for existing," Shirey said. "The things that we've been accustomed to receiving from our fire department is going to radically change."
The chief said his reorganization plan for the fire department based on the mayor's cuts leaves four stations open, all within five miles of Ball State. Each shift will have 16 firefighters running five trucks. Currently the department has 26 firefighters per shift running nine trucks. There will be three firefighters on most trucks. He said the mayor has not yet approved this proposal.
Burcham said this is a "critical" staffing level. "I don't recommend that. At all," he said.
Station No. 5, which sits on Tillotson Avenue near Christy Woods and protects Ball State, will remain open and house one pumper truck with three crew members, the same as now. On days when more than one firefighter calls in sick, the station will have to shut down, Burcham said.
Muncie firefighter union president Mike Whited said federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules forbid fire crews from entering a building until there are four firefighters on scene, two to enter and two to rescue the others if anything happens. This means even when the first truck with three people arrives at a scene, crews are supposed to wait outside until another truck arrives.
Burcham said with three people on a truck, there is almost nothing a crew can do to actually fight a fire until another truck arrives. A pumper truck would hold a driver, an officer and a "back end man." The truck would drop off the "back end man" near a hydrant to hook up the hose to the hydrant. The driver hooks up and operates the truck itself and the officer assesses the situation and determines what further steps need to be taken. That leaves no one to actually fight the fire, Burcham said.
The next two closest stations to Ball State would be No. 3 and No. 6. Trucks from those stations have to cross railroad tracks to get to Ball State. If they are delayed, a truck from Station No. 2 would be the next to arrive.
Muncie should ideally be adding more firefighters as it adds territory to the city through annexations, Burcham said.
Whited said the union has already made major contract concessions. He said firefighters haven't had an improvement in their contract in years. He pointed to "give-backs" the union has made recognizing the financial position of the city. But, he said, there is a limit to what they can give back.
Burcham said the firefighters who work for him aren't greedy and have given back a lot over the years. He also said minimum staffing protects their safety. More manpower is safer for them, he said.
This isn't necessarily the end of changes in the city's fire protection and other services. The city's budget shortfall is expected to be $6.8 million next year and about $8 million when the tax caps take full effect in 2011. Shirey said the city council is responsible for providing funding for city services. The mayor submits a budget to the city council outlining how much money the city needs to provide services. It is then up to the city council to either find funding for that budget or to cut it, he said. If the city council doesn't find ways to raise more money, said Shirey, then further changes will have to be made.
Adjusting to future cuts will be "an absolute rodeo," Shirey said. "I am, on a personal level, just struggling to figure out how in the world this is ever going to work out."
He said the only option he sees is radical reforms in municipal government.
The fire chief said he thinks Ball State should pay more for fire protection.
"They give us $100,000. That's it," Burcham said. "That's a small community. That's 20,000 people out there."
This amount has been added to the university's budget by the General Assembly for decades, Tony Proudfoot, associate vice president for marketing and communications, said. He said Ball State has supported efforts by legislators to increase this amount.
Ball State pays $14.67 per 1,000 gross square feet of campus buildings, less than any other Indiana public 4-year institution.
Proudfoot cautioned that comparing costs for fire protection doesn't tell the entire story.
Indiana State University also pays their local fire department $100,000, but its campus is about a third smaller than Ball State. They wind up paying $22.73 per 1,000 gross square feet.
The University of Southern Indiana is protected by a local volunteer fire department. University of Southern Indiana doesn't pay a set amount every year, but Miles Mann, assistant director of facilities operations, said that during the past few years, it has paid between $35,000 and $50,000 per year. At $35,000, the University of Southern Indiana pays about $17.46 per 1,000 square feet.
Purdue University pays more than any other Indiana school for fire protection. It costs Purdue $1.7 million to operate its own fire department. Public safety officials at Purdue said their fire department's unique mission makes it difficult to compare spending to other schools. The department provides ambulance service and fire protection to the Purdue University Airport, and even after hours maintenance for campus buildings. It costs Purdue about $97.77 per 1,000 square feet to provide these services.
Indiana University in Bloomington pays the city of Bloomington about $650,000, or $41.64 per 1,000 square feet, to provide fire protection.
IUPUI pays Indianapolis $190,000 per year to protect its campus. This is $19.24 per 1,000 square feet.
The deputy mayor declined to directly say whether Ball State should pay more. He did say that about 127 of the Muncie Fire Department's more than 6,000 fire runs last year were to Ball State. He said that when comparing that as a proportion of the fire department's 2008 budget of about $9 million, Ball State would be responsible for just under $200,000.
Mike Whited also declined to say on behalf of the union whether Ball State ought to pay more. He did say that everything, including fire protection, has gotten more expensive since that amount was established.
Proudfoot said that the relationship between the city and the university is more complicated than that one number.
He said the university also provides at least $350,000 in measurable benefits to the city when it comes to easing their financial burden. He said this includes the installation and maintenance of fire hydrants on campus, fire inspection and prevention on campus and the maintenance of city streets that run through and near campus. He also said the university provides more in services that can't be quantified. He pointed to the more than 1,000 times that officers from the University Police Department responded to assist calls.
He also said Ball State pays hundreds of millions of dollars in taxable wages and Ball State employees pay more than $10 million in property taxes. He also said the student population contributes to the local economy and tax base.
Ball State has not been directly involved in changes with the fire department, but the university community will remain safe after the cuts, Proudfoot said.
"We trust in the abilities of the city and the fire department to make the decisions they need to make to ensure our safety," he said.
Proudfoot said Ball State does not currently have any plans to become more involved. He said Muncie has the responsibility to protect the entire city, including Ball State.
Shirey and Burcham said they aren't thrilled about the situation, but both say they want what is best for the people of Muncie and will do their best with the situation they are given.
"The city of Muncie is in for some real challenges. It's going to be up to the community at large to provide the solutions," Shirey said.
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