Dori: Firefighters don’t need any added danger

As KIRO Radio reporter Hanna Scott broke earlier this week, the Seattle Fire Department, in a new policy, is now sending twice the number of firefighters that it used to when attending to aid calls in the Pioneer Square area.

“Two units are required now for calls in certain parts of Pioneer Square and at homeless encampments around the city,” KIRO Radio Reporter Hanna Scott said.

It used to be that two firefighters in one aid car would attend a medical call, but now two or more units with four, six, or even eight firefighters are being sent out for these calls. Scott said that the most problematic areas are near the Union Gospel Mission on Second Avenue.

“There are really two different populations of homeless people that we’re talking about … This is not the entire homeless population that is posing this danger, but there is a significant portion that is causing these problems and attacking firefighters often in the calls in those areas,” Scott said.

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She said that firefighters believe it is because of the large increase in homeless people living in Seattle in recent years.

Kenny Stuart, president of the Seattle Firefighters Union, told Scott that firefighters have seen an “alarming escalation of lawlessness” that has created a “chaotic and hazardous environment.”

“We do not want to wait until a firefighter gets seriously injured, or worse, to take action,” Stuart told her.

Dori pointed out that firefighting is already a dangerous career without the added problems brought by Seattle’s homeless population.

“They go out the door everyday, same as every cop does, knowing that they face a certain risk,” Scott agreed. “But this situation, this escalation in violence that they’re dealing with now, he says on a daily basis, is an unnecessary risk.”

If a situation becomes too dangerous for the firefighters, they are, according to the new policy, instructed to move to a safe location and call for police backup.

Scott said that she spoke with Mayor Jenny Durkan’s office about the issue on Thursday.

“She said she is committed to sitting down with the department and continuing work to make sure they have all the resources they need,” Scott said.