GARY -- Fire Chief Jeff Ward insists equipment failures and staffing cuts are not affecting his department's ability to protect the city.
More than 30 firefighters are scheduled to lose their jobs next month, and Ward said it's possible there might be a handful of jobs lost before that.
"It's going to make us work harder," Ward said. "It's not going to change the coverage."
But Firefighters Local 359 President Raynard Robinson recently compared local fire protection to Russian roulette. He said Gary is able, on average, to put just five or six of its 13 fire engines in service daily because of mechanical problems. Robinson said the situation could be perilous if multiple fires break out at once.
"You can't run this city with five or six fire engines," Robinson said.
Two fire engines are typically sent to cover a fire, he said, along with one fire truck and a rescue squad. Engines carry 500 gallons of water, Robinson said, and a truck carries 75 to 110 feet of ladder along with 300 gallons of water.
But while two engines cover the fire, he said, others must move around to make sure the rest of the city is covered. For example, Robinson said the department has to keep one engine south of the railroad tracks in Glen Park and one engine north of the tracks in Miller.
However, he said various scenarios and the need for firefighters to hustle to an emergency have left areas briefly unprotected, including Miller.
"You don't have a lot of time when there's a fire burning," Robinson said.
Ward denied Miller has ever been left unprotected, and he said there's nothing new about fire engines rotating to cover certain areas.
"It's always been that way," Ward said.
The chief also said he pursued a grant that would fund construction of a new fire station south of the railroad tracks in Glen Park.
"We didn't get it," Ward said. "We're doing the best we can."
Cash shortfalls have long plagued the Gary Fire Department, which does its job in spite of crumbling stations and old equipment. City Hall is also struggling to manage annual budget shortfalls in the millions, and a fiscal monitor suggested eliminating firefighter jobs and shutting down fire stations in a report last year.
Robinson and the union have fought a losing battle against pay and personnel cuts, and they commonly warn public safety is at stake.
Ward, meanwhile, wouldn't comment on the City Council's decision to pass a 2011 budget that eliminates the jobs of 31 firefighters.
"My opinion doesn't matter," Ward said. "My job is to try to run the Fire Department. What the council does is what they do."
City Council member Roy Pratt, Gary's public safety chairman, said the Fire Department's lack of reliable equipment is a "major problem."
"The real question is, 'What do we do? Where do we go?'" Pratt said. "We just don't have the money."
Gary has mutual aid agreements with other communities, which means it can call on neighbors for help when it's overwhelmed by multiple fires. Officials at other departments say they're happy to help.
"If they need us, we will go there," Hammond Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Smith said.
But Robinson said mutual aid is only helpful until other communities feel their citizens are at risk.
"They have helped us out a lot," Robinson said of Gary's mutual aid partners. "At some point that's going to run out."