Wednesday, June 17, 2009

A Regional Fire Service

There are 23 fire protection districts and 20 municipal fire departments in St. Louis County. Reformers and public safety experts (and some editorial writers) have suggested that these various entities would be more effective and more efficient if there were one fire service, with several sub-districts, instead of 43 different fire chiefs and command structures.

I’d take better regional fire protection one step further. If the County got its fire services in order, I would consider discussions to include the more widely experienced St. Louis Fire Department in a regional fire service, if it meant safer City neighborhoods, better compensated City firefighters, and lower costs for City taxpayers.