Nature of emergencies has changed
The Lawrence Fire Department faces a far different landscape from a decade ago.
According to the latest state Fire Marshal records, the department received 6,958 calls in 2003, 93 percent of them false alarms, medical calls, and other non-life-threatening situations.
The leading cause of home fires was cooking, while arson accounted for 3 percent of the 256 building fires reported. Last year, the department received approximately 6,500 calls, and while the number hasn't been broken down, local officials expect the results to be similar.
The trend has been improving for some time. In 1991, fires that were ignited with malicious intent, including buildings and vehicles, numbered 223, a far cry from the 16 recorded for 2003.
''The decline finally took place after the department took a serious role in doing fire prevention and fire code enforcement," said Lieutenant Michael Bergeon. With the help of the police and the state a decade ago, he said, Lawrence launched tougher investigations of arson, and forced slumlords to correct violations or face fire officials in Land Court.
The current challenge is keeping pace with the city's changing ethnic population, and the conversion of old mill buildings into homes and businesses. But even as the city grew, the number of firefighters fell to as low as 110 in the early 1990s, from 217 in the late 1970s. The number has climbed back to 126 in the past decade, but trucks still answer calls with an average of three firefighters each, instead of the standard of four set by the National Fire Protection Association.
Chief Joseph Marquis, a 28-year veteran of the department, said it's time to reopen the fire station on Glenn Street, which was closed in the early 1980s, and hire about 24 more firefighters.
''It would be good for us to open another fire station," he said. ''With the industrial park grown, a new high school, a new transportation center, and the redevelopment of the mills, we'd like to move from fire response to fire prevention" in that neighborhood.
