Frustrated by perceived inaction from Bellefontaine city officials and council, the local firefighters union has issued a public call for administrators to help bolster staffing levels that first responders assert are dangerously thin.
A Facebook post published Monday evening by the Bellefontaine Professional Firefighters Local 351 calls existing staffing levels, “a huge liability” to the current firefighters as well as for the residents of Bellefontaine and citizens in neighboring communities.
Bellefontaine firefighters predict, “more injuries will inevitably happen” in the event that additional firefighters/paramedics are not added to the roster.
Currently, nearly a third of the fire/EMS staff is off work due either to injury or National Guard leave, the firefighters union reports. As a result, “the fire department has gone through quite a bit more of its overtime budget than expected this year,” they said.
One point of contention for the union is that city administration, “decided the best course of action is to cancel all the time off for the remaining firefighters until further notice,” according to the post; despite the fact that in years past supplemental budget appropriations were made for first responders.
There are currently four firefighters/paramedics on duty per shift handling, a “record number of calls.
“When there are only four firefighters working to cover the city, there is no guarantee that if your loved one is having an emergency that they will be guaranteed help if another incident is concurrently taking place,” the union said.
The firefighters union reported the issue of inadequate staffing has been a problem for years now.
The union’s post points out that staffing levels in the “early 2000s” had seven firefighters/paramedics on duty per shift, handling some 1,500 calls for service per year.
“Last year, we were at six per shift due to the city administration refusing to fill our approved positions, and we did nearly 3,000 runs. That’s double the amount of work with fewer people,” they said.
The first responders point out that again this year the department is on pace for about 3,000 calls for service, and are handling those calls with four firefighters/paramedics per shift.
For its part, city administrators insist they are working actively to identify, “multiple potential solutions to staffing our department,” Service-Safety Director Dave Henry said.
He called the current staffing challenges within the fire/EMS department, “extremely unusual if not unprecedented” to have five firefighters currently on leave for various reasons.
Still, Henry said the city administration continues to work along with city council and the civil service commission on a number of initiatives including:
• authorizing the use of lateral transfers into the department, which would allow an experienced firefighter/paramedic to hire in directly to the department without going through some of the normal civil service hiring process;
• approving the potential hiring of part-time firefighters/paramedics with additional funding to fill temporary positions that are open due to any shortage of full-time personnel;
• interviewing their newest candidates to become Bellefontaine firefighters; and
• seeking grant funding opportunities to potentially add positions through the federal government’s SAFER grant program in which new firefighters/paramedic positions are covered for a period of time before becoming the responsibility of the city.
“This administration is committed to working together with our professional fire and EMS staff to ensure the highest level of continued service to the citizens of Bellefontaine,” Henry concluded.
The firefighters union points to the “unprecedented growth” the city of Bellefontaine has experienced in recent years as one recent for the current, heavy burden being put on first responders.
Despite the growth in population and industry, first responders including police and fire are at a disadvantage when their staffing levels aren’t consistent with growth in population, the union said.
In the month of April, Bellefontaine Fire and EMS averaged about 9 calls for service per day, and 14 percent of the 275 total calls for the month occurred while another run was in progress, which led to “54 occasions that there was not a fire or EMS crew readily available for the next emergency run,” firefighters reported.