La. firetrucks' staffing thin

Denham Springs mayor: Grant may help pay for firefighters
 
By Bob Anderson
The Advocate

DENHAM SPRINGS, La. — The Fire Department is awaiting arrival of its first aerial truck but is shorthanded on manning the trucks it already has, local officials said.

On each shift, the department has only two firefighters assigned to two of its three frontline trucks, though the national standard is five firefighters, Denham Springs Fire Chief Ivy "Woody" Cutrer said.

The third truck sometimes has three firefighters if no one is sick or on vacation.

The aerial truck expected to arrive in the spring will require nine firefighters to man it over three shifts, Mayor Jimmy Durbin said.

The mayor said he hopes the city can hire nine new firefighters through a federal grant that would pay a portion of their salaries over five years.

Cutrer said he thinks the city - whose other requests for Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grants have been denied - has about a 50 percent chance of getting this grant.

"If we don't get it, I don't know what we're going to do," said Lori Lamm-Williams, the council's liaison to the Fire Department. "We didn't budget for hiring nine firemen."

The cost of paying nine firefighters for five years would be almost $2 million.

If awarded, the SAFER grant would pay $909,091, according to the request.

Hiring nine "doesn't get us to where we need to be, but it's a step in the right direction," Lamm-Williams said.

She said the council could come up with the money for its share of the grant but would have to look hard to find the money to pay full salaries.

The cost to Denham Springs for the first year would be $3,714 per firefighter, but that figure would rise each year until the city takes over 100 percent of the salaries.

"We will hire more firemen with or without the grant," Durbin said.

How many would be hired remains to be seen, he added.

Durbin said he did not support a behind-the-scenes push by some officials to request a grant for 12 additional firefighters because the aerial truck will need only nine for three shifts.

Ordering the $793,859 aerial truck was necessary because of large buildings being constructed in the city, Cutrer said.

Aerial trucks are important not only in fighting fires in tall buildings, but in getting water to the middle of sprawling single-story buildings as well, he said.

Ideally, the aerial truck would be manned by six firefighters, Cutrer said.

He said the staffing of two men per each truck presents problems.

A crew of five should be able to handle 95 percent of fire calls, with that falling to less than 40 percent for a crew of three, Cutrer said.

In order to get needed manpower to a structure fire, Cutrer said he sends multiple trucks but then has to depend on the aid of other fire departments if a second fire occurs in the city.

With the existing firefighting staff, a major fire could put residents, businesses and the firefighters themselves at risk, the chief said.

The number of emergency calls, including wrecks, handled by the Fire Department has risen dramatically since Hurricane Katrina, but the city hasn't gained any firefighting positions, Cutrer said.

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