BUFFALO N.Y. (WKBW) — Dozens of Blasdell neighbors showed up at the Blasdell Village Board meeting Wednesday evening to have their voices heard over the possibility of the fire department dissolving.
One Blasdell resident from the audience says he wants the board to take action on the lack of Blasdell Fire crews.
“We need to have these men and women do their job. From what I heard they don’t feel appreciated,” the audience member says. “They just want and need to feel wanted. We need our firemen out there.”
But Blasdell Village Board is working on new ways to keep the community safe and to keep the department from collapsing.
Mayor Rob Hefner of the Village of Blasdell tells 7 News reporter Yoselin Person the village needs 35 volunteer firefighters to stay open and respond to calls on its own.
“We have ten members that have physicals and we will have enough hopefully when we get the physical results to actually send a fire truck out with a support crew,” Mayor Rob Hefner says.
In the meantime, the board will present a proposal to neighboring fire companies like Big Tree and Woodlawn to help with fire calls.
“And we will base it off of membership numbers, call volumes and what fire company helped us out the most,” Hefner says.
The mayor says those fire departments are within a two-mile radius of the village.
“I want residents to know that they are safe and we do have coverage on fire and EMT calls,” he says. “We are well taken care of the surrounding departments and our department is planning on building up membership again.”
The proposals to have a hybrid fire response are due March 24th.
