Detroit fire union fighting back against policy stopping lights, sirens on runs

DETROIT (WJBK) - The head of the Detroit Fire Department Union is concerned over the city's new policy to stop using lights and sirens on all its runs, saying the plan is dangerous.

Several weeks ago, the Detroit Fire Department let go of its lights and sirens policy on some of its runs that are considered non-emergency. 

On Monday, fire officials addressed city council on the policy. When the call is urgent, it will be called a Code 1 and lights and sirens will be used. When it's Code 2, they'll be going slower and abide by traffic laws.

Tuesday, union president Captain Mike Nevin says firefighters should move just as quickly while responding to non-serious runs.

"Whether it's a cat in the tree or a cardiac arrest or a house on fire, that's our job," Nevin said. 

Nevin said they're smart enough to use discretion but said there's more problems in giving that discretion to prioritize the calls to the operators.

"The dispatchers are not firefighters, they are civilians," Detroit Fire Commissioner Eric Jones said.

"We're pretty smart out here in the field, we kinda get it, we know what we're supposed to do. We know that if it's power lines down, depending on whether a residential area, a school, or the police calling them in like they've done numerous times, we know how to respond," Nevin said.

The members of city council are asking questions on Tuesday but the decision came from the executive meeting that the city council has nothing to do with it.

"Sometimes when we go through with lights and sirens we don't even see the carnage that we caused behind us," said Jones.

"It's not protecting our safety one bit. In fact it's jeopardizing our safety and that's why I'm looking at legal options now," Nevin said.

Statistics show that out if the roughly 20,000 runs last year, the fire department was involved in 17 accidents.