David Guralnick / The Detroit News Engine 34’s crew finishes a day’s grocery shopping on West Vernor. Short-handed fire companies must shop together in case a call comes in.

It takes a station to buy groceries

By Melvin Claxton and Charles Hurt / The Detroit News

    When Detroit firefighters go shopping for groceries, they usually ride in their fire trucks and take the other members of their crew along.
    They have no choice.
    The fire department is so understaffed that if the firefighter who cooks is out, there often are not enough remaining crew members to operate the truck in case of a fire.
    The fire department needs at least three firefighters to operate a truck. Usually that’s all any city fire truck has.
    So fire companies can’t spare a crew member, not even for an hour.
    For years, the department has required cooks to stay with their rigs even when buying groceries. And because firefighters work 24-hour shifts and must eat all their meals at the station, shopping is an important and daily chore.
    This means daily trips to the local supermarkets in the cumbersome trucks. Firefighters must load their sacks of food into cabs or side cabinets usually reserved for axes, saws and fire extinguishers.
    Firefighters have been known to create commotion in the checkout lanes when a fire call comes in.
    “They just drop everything and split,” said Ben Fienman, a manager at E&L Market on West Vernor, one of many Detroit stores frequented by firefighters.
    “We just put the buggy aside and they come back from their fire in a couple of hours and finish up,” he said.
    Fienman is used to the oddity of fire trucks parked in front of his market and firefighters lugging groceries through his store.
    “They’ve been coming in here for years,” he said. “You get so you don’t really notice it so much anymore.”

Contact the reporters at churt@detnews.com and mclaxton@detnews.com.