Safety workers protest Camden layoffs

A few dozen public safety workers on Monday staged a protest outside Camden City Hall, saying recent layoffs had made the city an unsafe place to live and work.

The demonstrators, most of them laid-off workers but also a few firefighters who had finished their shifts in the morning, held signs and chanted in unison: "Restore public safety now."

In a budget crunch, Camden officials in January laid off 163 police officers and 60 firefighters, in addition to 113 other city employees.

As one result of the cutbacks, union officials say, firehouses have been rearranged and now function with seven companies each shift, down from 11 a couple of years ago.

Camden firefighter Joseph DiPaolo sustained burns to his face and neck while fighting a blaze in the Fairview section of the city Friday evening. He and union officials blame the injuries on lack of backup and slow response time.

DiPaolo, a 17-year veteran who is assigned to Engine 10, was part of the first crew to arrive on the scene, within four minutes of the call.

"My job was to take the hose line and go inside to extinguish the fire," DiPaolo recalled Monday. There was heavy smoke at the Tuckahoe Road house, and DiPaolo saw an orange glow coming from the back porch.

While he was trying to gain entry into the home, a window popped from the heat, and a flashover occurred once he was 10 or 15 feet inside the front porch.

"I got hit in the face with a ball of fire," he said. He dropped to the ground, crawled, and rolled out of the house. "I basically crawled out of a wall of fire."

DiPaolo was treated at Cooper University Hospital.

Ladder 2, which used to be stationed with Engine 10 at 2500 Morgan Blvd., has been moved to the station at Broadway and Liberty Street.

While DiPaolo and union officials say the post-layoff rearrangement caused Ladder 2 to arrive much later than Engine 10, the Tuckahoe Road fire report shows that Ladder 2 arrived one minute after Engine 10.

City officials say they want to bring back public-safety workers, but "we have to do it within fiscal reality," said city attorney Marc Riondino.

The city received a $5.1 million Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant last month from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The city says it cannot use it until May because the terms of the grant dictate that it is to be used between May 2011 and 2013.

However, officials at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had previously said the SAFER money, which usually works through reimbursement, is available for the city to use now on rehires. Advance payments are also available under certain conditions.

About 15 firefighters would be brought back under the SAFER grant, city spokesman Robert Corrales said.

In the meantime, the city and public-safety unions have not scheduled any negotiations. Both sides say their doors are open.

Some of the laid-off public employees who were at Monday's demonstration with signs such as "People are 'dying' while you save money," and "Camden's new emergency #... (856) TOO-LATE," say they plan to take shifts in front of City Hall during the next few days.

Police officers said their reduced forces were busy over the weekend with various problems around the city, including one homicide.

Ralph Carstarphen, 24, of Camden, was killed shortly before midnight Saturday near Sixth and Royden Streets.

A man and woman, both 18, were wounded. The man was reported in critical but stable condition at Cooper University Hospital. The woman was treated and released.

A trio got out of a van near the intersection and shot Carstarphen multiple times, then sped off in the van, police said. Two officers were in the area responding to a domestic call when they heard gunshots, said Jason Laughlin, a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

Authorities took one man in custody in connection with the shooting. His identity has not been released. No charges have been filed.

The area of Sixth and Royden is a crime-ridden, drug- infested area that constantly had a presence of three to four police cars, said John Williamson, president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Camden, which represents the rank-and-file officers. But Williamson said the number of officers patrolling that area has decreased.

"With the layoffs and the reduction in personnel, obviously that area can't get the same attention that it would normally get," he said. "We're hoping that at some point the mayor and the Council realize that the reduction in police personnel, every day that it goes on, it puts the residents and the officers patrolling the streets at risk."

City officials refused to say how many officers would typically patrol the area, or whether that figure had changed since department's layoffs Jan. 18.

Carstarphen had attended Woodrow Wilson High in Camden before dropping out in the 10th grade, his family said. He earned a GED while serving time in prison. Records show he was sentenced to three years on drug charges. He was released nearly eight months ago and was trying to find a job, his family said.

"I really want to know what happened," said his mother, who declined to give her full name.