NEW BEDFORD, Mass. -- Hundreds of firefighters and police officers from around the state rallied in front of New Bedford City Hall Friday after it was announced that dozens of the city’s public safety officers will lose their jobs.

NewsCenter 5’s Jarrod Holbrook reported that members of the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts State Police joined with politicians and residents in calling for federal funding for public safety services.

“A lot of us have wanted to be firefighters all our lives, and then you finally get this job . . and then they come and they take it away from you,” said fire fighter Tim Lynch, who learned he would be losing his job 30 minutes before the rally. “It’s tough.”

The rally came one day after Mayor Scott W. Lang signed off on eliminating the fire positions, as well as 38 New Bedford police officers. City administrators are scrambling to make up for a $2.8 million loss in local aid this year.

“We have been abandoned,” said Robert M. McCarthy, president of the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts. “We’re here to sound the alarm, to blow our clarion, to say we need help.”

Police officer Steven Wadman, who was shot in 2006 while responding to an incident at the Foxy Lady adult night club, also learned this week that he would be losing his job.

“It’s a big insult to me,” Wadman said. “I’ve got two kids, a wife, a mortgage to pay for – I don’t know how I’m going to do it.”

Mayor Lang addressed the crowd during the rally and said that the layoffs had been a painful decision.

He told the fire fighters that the city is hoping for a reprieve from federal stimulus money.

“I believe police, fire and our EMS personnel are cut from a special cloth cut by God,” Lang said.

“We need it now more than ever,” he said.