WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) - The Wichita firefighters union is speaking out about firefighters helping to clean up at a local park.

The city of Wichita made a post yesterday thanking the firefighters for volunteering their time to help clean up a local community center at a park but firefighter union leaders have concerns about this kind of work. 

 

The goal for local firefighters is to respond within 4 minutes of being dispatched to a 911 call. Firefighter union president Ted Bush has concerns about meeting this goal when Wichita’s firefighters are taken out of their stations unnecessarily. 

“I don’t want this to be confused as I’m against us helping. I’m not at all. But there’s a right and wrong way to do it and they did it the wrong way,” said Ted Bush, Wichita firefighters union president. 

He’s talking about Wichita firefighters being asked to help clean up a community center in McAdams Park Tuesday morning. Bush says the firefighters weren’t given a heads up about this and they weren't given a choice in participation. 

“So if I have them go over there that’s a paid job to do someone else’s paid job that’s not volunteering. Volunteering is on my own time and I’m all for it,” said Bush. 

“Any time any department requests or asks for some type of assistance we try to help out,” said Jose Ocadiz, WFD battalion chief. 

The city says cross collaboration is normal. Fire Chief Ocadiz says this isn’t a frequent occurrence, but it also isn’t unusual. 

“We always have our radios, we are always available for calls, because that is our number one priority to respond to emergencies when we are dispatched,” said Ocadiz. 

The firefighters were actually dispatched once while helping the parks department. 

“Firehouse magazine did an audit of fire station 1 who was sent over to do park work, [fire station 1] is the 2nd busiest fire company in the nation,” said Bush. 

The fire union posted on Facebook during the volunteer hours there could be response delays due to the preoccupied firefighters. 

 

“My intention of the post was to let the taxpayer know that I didn’t think this was a responsible way to use firefighters' pay,” said Bush. 

Bush says his concerns stem from an unpublished fire study from 2022 that says Wichita is in desperate need for more firefighters, and the city is as many as 11 fire stations short. 

“We want to help, but we want to help in the right way. And forcing firefighters to go and do other people’s job is a little disrespectful. Even though on the backside we’re always willing to help anyone who asks us for help but we weren’t asked. We weren’t asked for that,” said Bush.

The union president emphasized that he’d be happy to have conversations with the city to set up more appropriate volunteer opportunities in the future.