Stratford leaders keep safety response times down during detour
By Stratford Star on November 25, 2014 in Letters to the Editor
Any safety concerns for the response times to the areas affected by the Sikorsky Memorial Airport Project have been considered throughout the planning process with state and federal agencies implementing the project, and addressed by the Stratford Fire Department, the Stratford Police Department and Stratford EMS.
For example, if there were to be a structure fire in the Lordship area, fire department leadership has instructed the Stratford Dispatch Center to dispatch automatic aid from the Bridgeport Fire Department (ladder truck and engine) to stage in the area and await assignment from the Stratford Fire Department on-duty incident commander.
In addition, whenever the Lordship unit (Engine 3) is assigned to an incident in their respective first due area, the on-duty incident commander has the latitude to move another unit into the district to provide additional coverage. This fire chief’s office has conducted a traffic study where it was found that there has been no increase in travel time to the areas impacted by the airport project. Of course if there are weather related issues the Fire Department has the ability to increase staff in areas where they feel the need. The department has done this in the past and will continue to do so to assure the safety of Stratford residents.
The Stratford Police Department also conducted a review of its response times two weeks before and two weeks after the temporary closing of Main Street on Nov. 5. The police department found no significant difference. In fact, the response time of the assigned beat car decreased by nearly one minute.
While the police understand residents’ concerns, they should be reassured that we always have patrols assigned to the Lordship neighborhood 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The department will continue to periodically review response times during the airport project and will make adjustments if necessary.
The project is off to a smooth start and there is no direct impact on public safety.
Stratford EMS has implemented roving patrols and directed crews to frequent the Lordship area as much as call volume allows, as well as adjusting lights and sirens responses to the affected area to keep overall response times as low as possible. Through these implemented efforts, SEMS is pleased to report that in looking back since the project began on Nov. 5, overall average response times to the area have actually decreased by approximately one minute, while not impacting response times to the rest of the coverage areas.
Throughout the course of this project, we will continue to work in unison as a municipal government to provide the highest level of public safety service to our residents.
Mayor John Harkins
Fire Chief Robert McGrath
Police Chief Patrick Ridenhour
