The following statement outlines the official position of IAFF Local #35 (the NLR Firefighter's Union) regarding the possible closing of Fire Station #5.

The citizens of North Little Rock are faced with a number of concerns recently.  This article addresses one of them: the issue of closing Fire Station #5 in Park Hill.

Since 1990, the City has almost doubled in geographical size.  However, the number of fire stations, firefighters and fire apparatus' (which is a fancy name for "firetruck") is exactly the same as it was in 1990.

City expansion caused the response time for the fire department to grow to unacceptable levels at the outer edges in the annexed areas.  With a need for fire protection in these outlying areas, the city administration was challenged to provide that protection.

Local #35 understands that the City's tentative solution will be:

1. Construct a new fire station at the far eastern border of NLR
2. Move Engine 7 out of Lakewood to the new station
3. Move Rescue 5 out of Park Hill to where Engine 7 used to be
4. Renumber the new station Station 5 and with Engine 5 (formerly E-7)
5. Operate Rescue 5 and Truck 7 out of the Lakewood station (Station 7)
6. Cease operations out of the Park Hill station ("old" Station 5).

In this manner, the Fire Department will simply be redistributed to cover a wider territory, instead of expanding the department to meet the needs of the growing city.

IAFF Local #35 firmly opposes any change in organization that calls for closing down any existing fire station.  It is our position that as the city expands, the size of the Department should be increased through the addition of stations, apparatus' and crew to meet the expanding needs of NLR.  We further believe that removing the regular first-in Engine company from Lakewood Fire Station #7 (leaving it with only a Truck company and a Rescue company) will have a significantly negative impact on the Department's ability to provide fire protection to the Lakewood area; and that there will even be a lesser impact on the fire protection for the immediately surrounding fire districts (notably, Park Hill and Indian Hills) which rely on Engine 7 out of Lakewood as a "second in" engine on structure fires.

In the future, IAFF Local #35 will take steps to ensure that the general public as well as the residents of these areas are made aware of the consequences of this change.

The information above is considered "public release", and as such, it is reprintable.  We ask that if it is reprinted that it be done so in it's entirety.