Chief: Vacant structure fires drop, thanks to demos

VINDY EXCLUSIVE

By JOE GORMAN

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Fire Chief John O’Neill credits the city’s demolition program for helping to lower the number of vacant homes that caught fire in 2016.

Crews last year responded to 126 vacant house fires, down from 195 in 2015.

O’Neill said in the past he was taking a wait-and-see attitude about the number of vacant houses declining and having an impact on fires, because he wanted to make sure the numbers weren’t just a fad.

Now the waiting is over.

The number of those fires had been on the decline for the last five years from 255 in 2012, declining for two years in a row and then trending up in 2015. But O’Neill said the drop-off in 2016 was significant, and he credited the city’s aggressive demolition program for knocking down buildings before they are burned down.

“Hopefully, the demolition program will stay as strong as it’s been,” O’Neill said.

According to Vindicator files, 571 vacant structures, almost all of them residential homes, were demolished in 2016, while in 2015, 424 properties were demolished. The total number of structures demolished since 2010 is 3,053. The number of buildings demolished in 2017 is the most ever

demolished in one year in the city.

O’Neill said besides not placing his firefighters in danger, a reduction in

vacant-house fires saves wear and tear on equipment and also keeps the city safer because crews are not speeding across the city on the roads to answer a call.

“The less [fires] you go to, the more better off everyone is,” O’Neill said.

He credited the increased demolitions for that. “It’s really having a positive effect,” O’Neill said.

One statistic that has stayed consistent over the last five years that O’Neill likes is response time, or the time it takes the first truck to reach the scene after the 911 center receives a call. For the second year in a row that time is 3:56. O’Neill said the national average is five minutes.

The reason the department’s response times are so good is because of the locations of all eight of the city’s fire stations, O’Neill said. He said they are situated in the right spots so trucks can get to a call quickly.