STAFFING

Since 2007, we have only gained one full-time firefighter and currently serve the community with 179 funded positions that we struggle to keep filled.

Proper staffing ensures the ability for our members to deploy adequate resources in the event of an emergency.  It has become routine for our resources to become exhausted on a daily basis, putting public safety at risk with emergency calls for service being held by dispatch until a unit has become available to respond.  This pattern has also resulted in increased sleep deprivation, impacting the health of our responders and increasing chances for life threatening error.

In 2018, we had 10,186 hours of overtime scheduled to staff apparatus, filled by members with an average of 9.8 years on the job costing taxpayers at minimum over $200,000 - and costing our members precious time away from their families.