CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - The Chicago Fire Department union is sounding the alarm on a truck shortage.
If you drive by 68th and Wentworth, you’ll see a large parking lot filled with City vehicles that need to be repaired. That includes a fire truck that broke down on Saturday, leaving the Englewood fire station without a key piece of equipment.
There’s no repairman on weekends, and the City didn’t spend a spare truck.
“You’re just basically out of service,” says Pat Cleary, president of the Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2.
He adds a fire engine can still respond to calls but doesn’t have the ladder and search and rescue capabilities of a truck.
“Now, that engine is going to wait for a truck from a different neighborhood, which is probably going to be six or seven minutes longer. That’s life or death,” Cleary says.
The Englewood station expects to get its truck back sometime later this week. In the meantime, the firefighters union is filing a grievance with the City and the Illinois Labor Relations Board.
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