the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Dec 8, 2025
After the Baltimore city fire department responded to three multi-alarm fires in under a week, the firefighters’ union warned that this very busy fire department “once again faced the impossible—trying to protect this city with minimal staffing and critical equipment out of service.”
The department only requires 307 personnel on duty daily, down from 371 in 2019. It only has 35 fire engines and 17 firefighting trucks, down from nearly 60 engines and 30 trucks in the early 1970s. (“Trucks” have ladders and other rescue equipment.)
The city population has gone down over the decades. But there are still tens of thousands of vacant buildings which are fire hazards.
For politicians to under-staff and under-equip emergency response is literally playing with fire—and lives.