02/27/08 - "They have already been relegated to a spot under the deputy chief/shift commander and didn't want to lose any perceived part of the ..."

Volunteer firefighters don't want to lose rank

By Martin B. Cassidy
Greenwich Time Reporter

A proposal to promote eight new lieutenants this year to provide better leadership and supervision at the Cos Cob and Byram fire stations has drawn concerns from volunteer firefighters' chain of command, town officials said.

In recent Board of Estimate & Taxation Budget Committee hearings, volunteer firefighters objected to the proposal, concerned that the lieutenants would be inserted above volunteer company chiefs during firefighting operations on each 24-hour shift, Fire Chief Peter Siecienski said...

... Jerry Cutrone, president of the Greenwich Volunteer Firefighters Association and a volunteer at the Sound Beach Volunteer Fire Department declined to comment on the proposal.

Cos Cob Volunteer Fire Chief Thomas Anderson, co-president of the Greenwich Volunteer Fire Chiefs Association also declined to comment....

...The new lieutenants would be promoted from within the department, requiring about $118,000 in additional salary for the new officers.

Siecienski said if approved the positions would create better accountability and safer firefighting efforts in those two neighborhoods.

"It strengthens our health and safety initiatives for the two areas of town that don't have lieutenants seven days a week," Siecienski said. "Those two areas don't get the same level of protection and we are looking to get those positions in place."

Currently the town charter places volunteer district chiefs second only in command to the chief of the fire department.