PITTSBURGH — 11 Investigates obtained surprising e-mails from an official in another city suggesting “embarrassing” Pittsburgh firefighters to get them to fall in line with bike lane projects.
This all centers around that controversial project in the Strip District to reduce traffic to one lane to create a bike lane.
The firefighters’ union opposed the original plan for safety reasons.
They said it would not give them enough room to operate their larger trucks.
Chief Investigator Rick Earle learned that a Pittsburgh city worker reached out to another city and received some advice on dealing with the fire department.
The disparaging e-mails are from a city employee in Baltimore to a city worker in Pittsburgh.
Fire union representatives in both cities are pushing back.
They told Earle that the e-mails are an insult to their professionalism and dedication to safety.
Pittsburgh’s controversial plan to reduce Penn Avenue in the Strip District to one lane and create a protected bike lane divided bikers and business owners.
“Penn Avenue is a little too risky for me to safely ride and I’m looking forward to the right-sizing project,” said one bicyclist who supports the project at a recent Pittsburgh City Council meeting.
“If there’s a big fire, people are going to die,” said a Strip District business owner who opposes the project.
The Pittsburgh Firefighters’ union also pushed back against the original plan, claiming it would make it more difficult for their trucks to access emergencies and that it violates the International Fire Code, which requires a lane of at least 20 feet for fire trucks.
The plan reduced the lane to 15 feet.
“You can’t sacrifice everybody’s safety for just a few people’s safety. I think they need to relook at this whole project and find other alternatives than to narrow down the roadway,” said Pittsburgh Firefighters Union President Ralph Sicuro.
Facing a lawsuit from business owners who contend it will impact their livelihood, the city agreed just last week to move the bike lane adjacent to the traffic lane, allowing for more room for delivery trucks and emergency vehicles. The bike lane will not be protected, so that will satisfy the requirement for the Fire Code.
11 Investigates exclusively learned the city of Pittsburgh was gearing up to deal with firefighters’ concerns last winter when a city of Pittsburgh employee in the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure reached out to the city of Baltimore for guidance.
They had experienced similar issues with narrow streets, bike lanes and opposition from firefighters.
An email obtained by 11 Investigates from a city of Baltimore project manager to Pittsburgh offers some suggestions, but then references firefighters “embarrassing themselves in silly videos,” an apparent reference to social media posts by firefighters in Baltimore about the difficulties of maneuvering on narrow streets.
“I forgot one more thing the fire department did to shoot themselves in the foot,” he then writes.
Then he provides a link to a story about a Baltimore city firefighter who assaulted a bicyclist at a meeting on bike lanes.
“So all you have to do is subliminally encourage Pittsburgh’s fire department to publicly embarrass itself multiple times and the pieces will all fall in place, haha,” he wrote.
He did couch it with this, “That said, we work well (with) our fire department and respect their work/interests.”
“I think it’s childish. It shows you that I feel there’s a disrespect for the profession that we have,” said Sicuro.
The Pittsburgh Firefighters’ Union President hadn’t seen the e-mails until we showed him.
“I’m not going to pick on these people, whatever their inside joke was but it’s a disrespect to us,” said Sicuro.
We also reached out to the president of the Baltimore City Firefighters’ Union, who was unaware of the e-mails.
“The biggest concern with that is a city agency is reaching out to another across state lines, calling their fire department silly and embarrassing or you shoot themselves in the foot when our main concern is safety,” said Baltimore Firefighter Union President Matthew Coster.
Three months after the disparaging e-mails, the firefighter referenced in them suffered a medical emergency and died during a training exercise.
“He lost his life in the line of duty protecting the citizens of Baltimore. So for any of us, that could happen at a moment’s notice and to kind of dismiss us and push us aside for our safety concerns, it’s ridiculous,” said Coster.
11 Investigates reached out to city officials in Baltimore and Pittsburgh multiple times, but never heard back.
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