Firefighter Matthew Perry
During normal times, the firefighters would have been honored by Governor Charlie Baker at the Annual Firefighter of the Year Awards Ceremony. The event will still happen next week, but it will be conducted virtually instead of in person.
The good news is that anyone in the Greater New Bedford area can watch the ceremony on a Facebook Live stream or by clicking here and watching it on YouTube. The virtual event will happen this coming Monday morning, March 8, at 10:30 a.m.
If you miss the live feed, the ceremony will be archived here.
The New Bedford Fire Department says it will schedule an in-person ceremony when public health conditions improve.
NEW BEDFORD The new-to-New Bedford “quint” fire apparatus has arrived in the city.
According to the New Bedford Fire Department’s official Facebook page, the department “recently made the purchase of a lightly used 2005 quint,” after “the unexpected breakdown of one of our apparatus.” The department shared photos of the quint as part of the Facebook post.
This particular quint – which is a hybrid of both an engine and a ladder truck – has 31,000 miles on it and is “in very good condition,” the department wrote, “replacing a 2003 quint with over 100,000 miles and which is no longer functional.”
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New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said the city will soon apply for a federal SAFER grant to help the New Bedford Fire Department “transition from a rough period financially for the city.”
Mitchell also told WBSM host Barry Richard on Wednesday that local fire union officials have been overstating the city’s reliance on mutual aid from surrounding communities during major structure fires in New Bedford.
“It’s the kind of thing you hear from the fire unions. It’s one big union, they re pressing their case for not doing as much coverage as they d like,” said Mitchell, who cited statistics from the New Bedford Fire Department that he said show mutual aid calls having decreased in recent years.
After shockingly disparaging residents with disabilities earlier this year, New Bedford City Councilor Linda Morad couldn’t help herself but to snidely insult yet another seemingly impossible-to-criticize group of local residents: the men and women of the New Bedford Fire Department, who have been working nonstop to keep the city from being reduced to cinder.
When the motion was put forward at Thursday’s City Council meeting by Councilor Brian Gomes to oppose the closure of Engine 8 at the North End fire station, every city councilor with the exception of Morad cosigned in support. Councilor Morad has also been on the record voting against a similar motion in August.
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell still plans to remove Engine 8 from service, even after a series of large fires that rocked the city since Thanksgiving when three multi-family houses burned on Washburn Street.
Mitchell said on my program Wednesday that he plans to replace Engine 8 with a hybrid vehicle known as a quint that is both an engine and a ladder truck. His critics say there is no comparison between the two pieces of apparatus.
Veteran City Councilor Brian Gomes, who chairs the council s Public Safety Committee, also called into the program to inform us that the quint Mitchell has purchased is 15 years old and someone else s headache. He said the vehicle is too large to maneuver the tight streets in the near-North End and is a tight squeeze for Station 8 on Acushnet Avenue.