DES MOINES, Iowa — The Des Moines Firefighters say the Fire Chief will be recommending a change to Fire Station 8, located in the city’s southside, during an upcoming City Council meeting.

According to a Des Moines Firefighters Facebook post, the Fire Chief will be recommending that one of the fire engines at Station 8 be removed from service. Station 8 services the city’s southside, along with Stations 6 and 10, in one of the largest areas of the city.

Joe Van Halen is the President of the Des Moines Professional Firefighters Union and says the recommendation is likely a way to save funds.

“Well, it seems like it’s purely a financial decision at this point,” said Van Halen. “We feel like this is a fairly rash decision simply to save money. What we do know is that we need more fire stations in the city of Des Moines, and fire station placement within the city of Des Moines is extremely important.”

This decision also comes as firefighters are asking for the completion of an accreditation process, which would provide data to help the Mayor and City Council decide how to best fulfill community needs.

“Back in June of 2015 is when the council action came forward proposing that they would start and complete the accreditation process,” said Van Halen. “We feel like that should have been done a long time ago. In that time, we built one fire station that has been completed. We’ve got a fire station currently number four that’s in the process of being completed. Both of those fire stations were built without that information.”

Union representatives say Stations 6 and 10 have issues meeting the National Fire Protection Association standards for getting trucks and personnel to areas in a timely manner. They say the loss of an engine at Station 8 will increase their workloads.

Van Halen says this isn’t the first time a fire engine has been taken out of service. Medics 4 and 6 were taken out of service previously.

“The numbers that Medic One was running, they weren’t sustainable. They were hitting 3000 calls very quickly or 2500 immediately. Those guys were running 20, 25 runs per day, which for our members is just not sustainable. That’s too much work,” said Van Halen. “So that’s just what we’re trying to do now, is be a little bit more proactive this time so that we’re not fighting to get it put back in a year later or six months later or whatever.”

Union representatives say the main focus should be on making sure stations and engines are evenly distributed.

“The only thing that really fixes those problems is building new fire stations and having them placed in better strategic locations,” said Van Halen. “The city of Des Moines shifted its population over the years and hasn’t built stations to meet those needs, and so specifically on the south side.”

The Des Moines Firefighters say the Fire Chief will bring this issue to the City Council on Monday.