BROOK PARK, Ohio — You might not think a woman rescued just a couple of blocks from Brook Park's last surviving fire station would want to reopen a station much further away.
But, in the yard of the family's gutted home on Engle Road, Linda Moraco has posted one of many signs popping up around town in support of Issue 2, the subject of a special election on Tuesday, Feb. 3.
The issue calls for reopening the Ruple Parkway station, which Mayor Tom Coyne closed last May, and setting minimum staffing levels per shift at both stations: two firefighters on Ruple and five at the station on Engle and Holland roads.
Moraco, 65, says every resident should have the same chance of survival that she and her granddaughter, 20-year-old Kailtyn Moraco, did on Oct. 28, when firefighters hauled the women from the Moracos' blazing home and revived them.
"If I had lived on Ruple, I wouldn't be here [alive]," said Moraco, who's staying with a son in Grafton while workers rebuild her childhood home. "The response time is everything. Brook Park should never have to wait more than two, three minutes for a response anywhere in the city."
But Safety Director David Byrnes said that centralizing the fire department helped save the Monacos. Ten local firefighters responded. What's more, he said the two firefighters proposed for Ruple couldn't safely enter a burning building there until colleagues came to support them and keep the equipment working.
Coyne has introduced resolutions to City Council honoring the Moracos' leading rescuers: firefighters Dustin Burkholder and Benjamin Dockstader, Lieutenant Matthew Lynch, Assistant Chief Patrick Johnson and Chief Thomas Maund. The first three carried the women from the blaze, and the last two revived them on the lawn.
Investigators found that the fire began in the basement, but they could not determine the cause. Linda Moraco said she lost "65 years of memories," but at least has replacement insurance.
Petitioners have gathered signatures from more than 20 percent of the electorate for Issue 2. It's the only item on the ballot for the special election, which is costing Brook Park $29,900.
City Law Director Neal Jamison and petitioners' lawyer Mark Guidetti disagree over whether the ordinance would be binding. Coyne says he'll ignore it, and petitioner leader Greg Wellman says the petitioners might sue to enforce it.
Ruple Parkway is part of a curvy, somewhat isolated neighborhood called the West End. Coyne, a West Ender, says the petition is the latest bid by Jim Astorino, head of the Northern Ohio Fire Fighters, in a long, losing drive to set minimum staffing levels at the bargaining table or on the ballot. In 2012, Astorino backed losing charter amendments for minimum staffing. In 2013, he finished last in a three-way race for mayor.
Astorino says he helped with the recent petitions in the interest of safety, not jobs for his members. Wellman says the Brook Park fire local has not helped with the Issue 2 campaign.
City officials say the closing has cut response times citywide. According to figures from Byrnes, recent travel times for first responses to medical emergencies — the vast majority of emergencies for the fire department — have averaged 5:53 to the West End and 4:48 overall.
Byrnes says that, before Ruple closed, its firefighters made about twice as many runs to other neighborhoods than to the West End, so they often had to double back. Coyne says it's more efficient to have a common base for all firefighters and equipment.
The West End is partly cut off from the rest of Brook Park by Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. It connects mostly through a snaky Aerospace Parkway in between. It includes the city's biggest workplace, NASA Glenn Research Center.
Since the closing, the West End's first responder is often a police officer with a defibrillator for stimulating weak hearts. But petitioners want quick responses by emergency medical technicians with ambulances.
Coyne says he's looking into privatizing emergency medical services and shrinking the fire department accordingly. At a meeting late last year, a couple hundred firefighters protested the plan.
Polls will open Feb. 3 from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. To vote early or by absentee ballot, contact the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, 216-433-VOTE, boe.cuyahogacounty.us.