MILWAUKEE — Today is your last chance to hear why firefighters and EMTs in Milwaukee want you to pay attention to the city's budget approval process which is entering crunch time.
Fire officials say the decisions being made will have a direct impact on safety.
It boils down to this: in an emergency, like a heart attack or house fire, you may have to wait longer for help to arrive.
Community meetings have been taking place at every firehouse in Milwaukee and tonight is your final chance to hear why fire officials are worried that proposed budget cuts are cutting into your safety.
They say firefighters and EMT's are already under strain and taking away resources will only add pressure.
During the last week of September, the Milwaukee Fire Department was called out 2,265 times. That's nearly 300 more than the same week last year.
The majority of calls were for medical emergencies but the fire department also responds to car crashes and other service calls which can be something like a stuck elevator.
Now, how quickly you get help depends on which fire station they're coming from.
The Milwaukee Fire Department lost one fire station in 2014, five in 2017, and another in 2019.
If the city's budget moves forward as proposed, two more will be shut down and the city will have lost 9 fire stations in less than 10 years.
"I would say the biggest concern from the fire dept standpoint is, we can talk about the firefighters and the extra workload that's going to be on them, but it is the delayed response to the communities and it's not just the citizens of Milwaukee it's the citizens of all of our shared services," said Eric Daun, President of Milwaukee Professional Firefighters Local 215.
Tonight, you can find a meeting at fire stations 10, 12, 30, and 32.
The fire department's goal is to educate people about the current demand for services and the potential impact down the road if more stations are closed.
Essentially, the fire chief says this boils down to a 2$.5 million gap. If the city can find that money in the budget, all fire stations could stay open next year.
Coming up, we'll look at the quickly approaching deadline for the city of Milwaukee to approve its next budget.
