Phoenix hiring firefighters thanks to grant
Aug 13, 2012, 6:24 AM | Updated: 6:25 am
PHOENIX — The City of Phoenix is hiring more firefighters thanks to a grant from The Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The award totals $4.4 million and enables the fire department to hire 28 full-time firefighters for positions eliminated during recent budget cuts.
During the last five years, city cuts in personnel and services have totaled more than $80 million. The Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response funding will allow the Phoenix Fire Department to maintain staffing on emergency-response units in accordance with
National Fire Protection Association codes.
According to Captain Rich Bauer with United Phoenix Firefighters, they were having a difficult time managing with the resources available.
“The firefighters’ union agreed to do furlough days, where we’d go without pay for 48 hours a year,” said Bauer. “What that does, is that it shuts one truck in a station a day, but it can replaced with another roving adapt truck,” he added.
But the situation can get much more precarious.
It’s called a blackout. A fire station is completely shut down in a neighborhood for an unspecified period of time. Bauer said this was a possibility.
“Horrible if you have a heart attack or a house fire and you got that delayed response. Hiring these 28 people will prevent this from happening,” said Bauer.
“This funding is critical to the safety of Phoenix residents,” said Councilman Michael Nowakowski, chairman of the City Council Public Safety, Veterans, Transparency and Ethics Subcommittee.
The additional firefighters will strengthen the regional automatic/mutual-aid system. The department’s Regional Dispatch Center sends the closest available fire unit to an emergency regardless of jurisdictional boundary.
The automatic/mutual aid consortium includes more than 25 neighboring fire departments and provides protection to an estimated 3.8 million people.