The following are actual travel distances from three Mansfield fire stations and one Madison Township fire station to a business located in the 4th Ward north of the Route 30 Expressway in the city of Mansfield.
This particular business could just as well be an occupied house, a factory, a school, a mobile home park, a truck terminal, a church, a nursing home, a gasoline station, a higher education facility, a country club or a fairgrounds complex.
Mansfield Fire Station #6 located at 677 Springmill Street = 1.7 miles travel distance to the business, Mansfield Fire Station #2 located at 35 North Brookwood Way = 2.3 miles, Mansfield Fire Station #1 located on East Third Street = 3.2 miles, and Madison Township Fire Station #2 located at the corner of Belmont Avenue and Caldwell Street in the adjoining township = ONE HALF OF A MILE.
The current initial response by the Mansfield Fire Department (MFD) to an Automatic Fire Alarm at the business is one Engine, #6 from Station 6, and, if available, an Assistant Fire Chief from Mansfield Fire Station #1. The North End Community Improvement Collaborative (NECIC), working in conjunction with David Spain, a retired MFD Assistant Fire Chief, questions the feasibility of the limited initial MFD response.
The NECIC and David Spain are recommending that a revised initial minimum response for the business and the other mentioned occupancies be adopted by the Mansfield Fire Department to include a fire engine from the nearby Madison Township Fire Station #2. The process for dispatching the Engine from the Madison Township Fire Station is known in the Nation’s Fire Service as Instant Mutual Aid (IMA).
Also, at this moment in time, it would seem as though Mansfield’s Fire Chief, Steven Strickling, who signed and issued the controversial one Fire Engine policy for automatic fire alarms, has not told the other officers and fire fighters of the MFD that the policy could very well place any one of them in a courtroom.
David Spain
Mansfield, Ohio
