Dear Editor,
The Langley City Fire Department currently they runs five guys on a shift, most of the times four, when someone is on vacation or sick.
The majority of calls they go to are medical assists, very few fires, and the statistics will show that.
I agree that this is a very important part of our city, and we have some very well trained professional firefighters (full time) backed up by volunteer firefighters, but the expense is out of this world.
Why doesn’t the City cut back to four on each shift, or even three? There are the volunteers to pull from, and mutual aid from Surrey and the Township of Langley. There is a mutual aid agreement. I am wondering if the IAFF firefighters union is pushing the City around, or what?
I am expecting the union to reply to this, but don’t let their explanations fool you. It’s a no-brainer: cut back to three or four; it will work just fine, and save the taxpayers lots of money.
J. Jordan, Langley City