Cape Girardeau firefighters’ union declares public safety concern
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KBSI) – The Cape Girardeau Fire Department has seen a decline in experienced firefighters.
Four members of the department recently quit and possibly more to follow.
Ethan Essner is the treasurer of the Cape Girardeau Firefighters Association. He says the reason for downfall in employees is pay.
Cape Girardeau was named ‘Most expensive metropolitan area’ to live in Missouri according to Cost of Living Data Series | Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (mo.gov).
This has the Cape Girardeau Fire Fighters Association asking for better wages.
According to a post made on Cape Girardeau Firefighters L1084 Facebook page the department is declaring a public safety concern and states:
“Your Cape Girardeau Fire Fighters are committed to the safety of our community. We applaud the efforts of City leaders to make our community better and safer. We support growing Cape Girardeau and investing in a better city for all of the citizens we serve. However, growing our community and efforts to improve the city must also include improving public safety. Currently your fire department does not have an adequate number of firefighters capable of responding effectively and efficiently. Even worse, the City has not focused on efforts to attract or retain experienced firefighters to provide the emergency response our citizens deserve. Instead we are losing experienced firefighters to other communities. This is unacceptable, We need them here! We need your help, contact your council member and ask them to support Cape Girardeau Fire Fighters so we can better protect you. We don’t want it to take a tragedy for our city to realize we need help.”
“We need local leaders to see that increased funding will not only help recruit individuals but also increase funding, says Essner, but also keep that experience within the fire department.”
If members of the department continue to quit, it could greatly the community.
Ethan Essner says he hope it doesn’t come to that, “Worst case scenario, but we hope that it doesn’t take a tragedy from that being a citizen or one of our fellow fire fighters to get the attention of local leaders to see that experience is crucial within this job and the fact that were losing that experience is not only detrimental to the department but to the city.”
If you would like to help the Cape Girardeau Fire Department, you can contact your city leaders.
