TROY – Mayor Patrick Madden told the City Council Thursday night the city must study the fire department’s operations and needs to modernize to meet the demands of a changing community.

“We have woefully neglected the fire department for the last two decades,” Madden said. “We need to took at our fire department, the services we provide.”

The council was meeting as the Finance Committee to hear Firefighter Eric Wisher, president of the Troy Uniformed Firefighters Association Local 86, speak about spending $330,000 to buy a second set of turnout gear for the department’s 110 firefighters. Council President Carmella Mantello had called the meeting to address the union’s safety concerns.

The mayor said his administration has met with an outside consultant to discuss the fire department. He said the city will have to seek requests for proposals from consultants to select one to complete a comprehensive review.

The fire department’s staffing levels, the condition of the deteriorating firehouses, the equipment, safety, and training must be studied, Madden said.

The mayor sent a letter to the firefighters union outlining the steps his administration is taking to improve the condition of the current turnout gear and to prepare for the future. Fire Chief Eric Madden said the department had introduced new protocols for cleaning equipment after fires to protect firefighters’ health.

“We share a goal of creating a department which meets the current and future needs of the community while providing the greatest possible protection to our firefighters in the most cost effective manner for our taxpayers. This is an ambition undertaking but necessary in my view,” Madden wrote in the letter.

Wisher said the department needs at least 10 more firefighters. He urged the city to buy the second set of turnout gear to protect firefighters from carcinogens they would be exposed to from wearing wet dirty gear.

While Madden said he was open to sharing services with the neighboring Cohoes, Green Island and Watervliet fire departments, Wisher said, “absolutely not.” Wisher said Troy must maintain its department and not risk reducing services.

The discussion of the turnout gear arose from last week’s fires that destroy the Alpha Lanes bowling alley in Lansingburgh and a warehouse on the East Side off Pawling Avenue. Firefighters battled the bowling alley fire in the morning then had to fight the warehouse blaze in the late afternoon. Firefighters wore the same gear to both fires.

Both Wisher and Madden touched on the poor condition of three of the city’s six firehouses. The Lansingburgh Fire Station, built in the 1970s, needs to be replaced. The North Street Fire House has problems with leaking sewage. The Campbell Avenue Fire Station’s showers don’t work. As a result firefighters have to go to other stations to get cleaned up after fighting a fire.