Busted Rescue Boat Has Amesbury (MA) Firefighters Concerned

amesbury-MA-fd
Amesbury Fire Department, 17 School Street. (Google maps)

The following was posted on Amesbury Fire Fighters IAFF Local 1783 Facebook page June 25:

Boat Update June 25, 2023

Amesbury Firefighters Local 1783 are still without a boat as of today. With summer officially beginning this month, our concern for the ability to properly protect our waterways within the city continues to grow. As the warm weather has approached, it will undoubtedly generate much more water activity over the next couple months, both on the river and on our ponds and lakes.

The Amesbury Fire Departments rescue boat was taken out and tested in the month of April by the members of the Amesbury Fire Department in efforts to try to make it suitable for water incident responses, and sadly, it has failed. It is currently sitting behind the station out of service indefinitely. Local 1783 has brought this concern to both the Fire Department administration staff and to the City, with no foreseeable resolution. As indicated on a Facebook post put out by the City of Amesbury on May 24th, 2023, the City has taken the stance that it will be relying on mutual aid to protect our waterways as a primary means to any and all water rescue incidents.

This is completely unacceptable and not how a professional fire department should operate. We simply cannot expect other cities to be ready with specialized equipment at a moment’s notice 24 hours a day to respond to Amesbury’s waterways due to the failure of the City to adequately provide necessary equipment to their own Fire Department. The term mutual aid says it all, mutual. If we cannot provide the same type of aid as we are expecting of other communities there is nothing mutual about it. This held true this evening as a rescue boat was requested from Amesbury to assist with a search on the Merrimack River, we were unable to fulfill the request. Like any other rescue, time is crucial. The amount of time to wait for a rescue vessel to come from another community could be at least 20 minutes, this could very well mean life or death for someone in need.

As stated in our last post, Amesbury Fire Department protects approximately 4 miles of the Merrimack River along with 9 other bodies of water. There are 5 marinas with millions of dollars worth of vessels and personal property. Amesbury alone has had 5 drownings in the past 2 years.

Once again, we are pleading for any assistance to properly outfit the Amesbury Fire Department with the equipment necessary for water rescue. The city has made it clear that the safety of our waterways is not a priority and they are counting on the availability of other communities to handle them for us. We ask that residents please contact your districts Representatives and Mayor Gove to voice your concern of the lack of this critical rescue equipment we desperately need. The links shared below will contain the contact information needed.

The members of Local 1783 are committed to the safety of our residents and visitors. We are willing to do whatever it takes to save a life or property, we simply ask for the proper equipment to do so.

Carl Rizzo

President, IAFF Local 1783

https://www.amesburyma.gov/213/Mayors-Office

https://www.amesburyma.gov/371/City-Council

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