Firefighters and the community are asking the Canandaigua City Council to hire more

CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. (WROC) — Tuesday’s Canandaigua City Council board meeting was intended to be a budget workshop, but quickly turned into a conversation about public safety. Specifically, it is about the number of firefighters deployed after four firefighters had to fight a fire in a house alone.

A 98-year-old man died after the fire.

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Tuesday’s meeting began with a minute’s silence for 98-year-old Saverio Campagna. Campagna died in a fire on Jefferson Avenue on Saturday. One of the firefighters who entered Campagna’s house remembered what happened.

“I was acting captain because we didn’t have a captain. We had no chief; We didn’t have a deputy chief. It was just me, my fire truck and my partner,” he said. “Stefania is out here losing her mind, and she sees me, and I know Stefania, and she’s yelling at me, ‘My dad’s in the kitchen.’ and I yell back, ‘I’m trying to do my job.’ But I had to be captain and second-in-command in that moment.”

Stefania is Mr. Campagna’s daughter. Family members told News 8 she had been caring for her father for some time.

In a statement to social media Saturday, the Canandaigua Firefighters’ Union said, “We have warned the City Council and Manager of the ever real and present dangers our community faces from this staffing shortage.”

The Canandaigua firefighters union is outraged by the staffing, the city responds

The City of Canandaigua is currently working on its 2025 budget.

On Tuesday, the board voted briefly on whether the budget should include funding to staff two additional firefighters and conducted a public safety study on how many firefighters the department will need to hire in the future.

“Spending three-quarters of what a firefighter would make, or almost the budget of a deputy chief, on another survey I think is a waste of money. I’m frustrated that we’ve talked about this and day after day, blow by blow, exactly what happened on Saturday happened,” said Bob Palumbo, mayor of the city of Canandaigua.

Community members also raised concerns about the shortage of firefighters and called on the City Council to hire more.

“It’s incredibly disturbing to know that we have such a great community and that you lost a beautiful life because you weren’t willing to put the money where it counts,” said resident Eric Wendorff.

Budget votes cast by the board on Tuesday will be forwarded to the city manager, who will then present a final budget to the board for a vote.

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