Brittany Horn

The News Journal

While most of Wilmington residents were sleeping off their turkey Thursday, city firefighters and their wives protested the practice of putting a fire truck out of service to save overtime dollars.

Two months ago to the day, Wilmington firefighters Capt. Christopher Leach and Lt. Jerry Fickes died while fighting a rowhome fire in Canby Park. That night, Sept. 24, Engine 6 at Station 6 along North Union Street was out of service. On Thanksgiving night, the same truck sat idle.

Signs emblazoned with the words "Trading dollars for lives" and "Closed fire stations = U wait 4 help" greeted those driving by the station at about 7 p.m. Thursday. A ladder truck remained in service inside the station, but a ladder truck carries no water to a burning house, said Mike Wiktorowicz, an executive board member of the firefighters' union, International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1590.

Instead, firefighters are left with the choice to either head into a burning home and hope backup is close behind, or to let the structure – and potentially people inside – go up in flames, he said Thursday, across from Station 6.

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"We've talked about it for years, like playing Russian Roulette," Wiktorowicz said. "One day, somebody is gonna get hurt. But we never thought it would happen to us."

Thursday marked the second night of picketing from Wilmington firefighters and their families determined to change the minds of city administrators. Wilmington Fire Chief Anthony Goode and the city resumed the practice after a two-month hiatus following the deaths of Leach and Fickes, citing $500,000 in overtime costs four months into the budget year.

Both Goode and the mayor's spokeswoman Alexandra Coppadge stressed the need to be fiscally responsible with more than half the fiscal year left. But union members and their families say the conditional company closures put residents and city firefighters at risk.

Until conditional company closures end, Wiktorowicz said they plan to inform residents what is really going on in their communities and the dangers these closures pose.

Patti Strecker stood on the corner near Kelly's Logan House on Thanksgiving Eve, a sign in hand for residents to read. Strecker hoped to gain the public's attention on the biggest bar night of the year and felt like she made an impact. Many people are unaware of the policy and don't understand the ramifications it could have for the community.

Another man slowed his car Thursday night as he drove past Station 6, yelling out the window to ask what was going on.

"If your house is on fire, there's not water coming to put it out," one volunteer shouted to the passerby.

For Strecker, whose husband, Jason Strecker, has served as a firefighter since he was 16, the deaths have awakened fears she forgot she once had about his job.

"You get used to the shifts and you hear things," she said. "You know it can happen, but now you know it can happen to me. It brings everything back."

Union members and their families plan to continue picketing outside each fire station that will see conditional closures. The group will be at Second and West streets from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and at Eighth and Market streets starting at 10:30 a.m. Saturday during the Wilmington Christmas parade.

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Contact Brittany Horn at (302) 324-2771 or bhorn@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @brittanyhorn.