Toronto firefighters and Riverdale residents rallied Thursday morning in a bid to stop the city from pulling a fire truck out of the east-end neighbourhood.
A local fire station is set to lose a fire truck as part of proposed budget cuts that would take four other trucks out of service, close Fire Station 424 in the Runnymede area, and eliminate 101 vacant positions.
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford responded through Twitter Thursday morning, tweeting "Toronto can be confident there will be the same number of firefighters and fire trucks in service in 2013 as there were in 2012."
Nonetheless, in response to the looming cuts, dozens of people marched to Station 324 at 840 Gerrard St. E., just west of Carlaw Avenue, to call on the city to keep the truck in service.
Ed Kennedy, president of the Toronto Professional Fire Fighters’ Association, says the cuts will result in longer response times and put Toronto residents in danger.
Toronto Fire Services Chief Jim Sales has previously said the cuts would have a “marginal impact” on response times.
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