$2M grant helps N.M. FD increase firefighter staffing sooner than expected
Clovis officials say a SAFER grant will help fund six new firefighter positions starting in March
A City of Clovis firefighter puts water on a fire started by a Roman candle during a demonstration of illegal fireworks at the Clovis Fire Department Training Center.
JOHN WALKER/TNS
By Leqi Zhong
The Fresno Bee
CLOVIS, N.M. — The city of Clovis will add more firefighters sooner than expected thanks to a $2 million federal grant.
Clovis will hire six firefighters in March with the help of an Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The grant aims to help local fire departments with staffing and deployment capabilities in order to respond to emergencies.
“By accepting the grant, the fire department will accelerate the initial timeline of squad implementation to begin in March 2026 instead of fiscal year 2026-27,” said Chris Ekk, the city’s fire chief. “The six firefighters that we hire will start on March 23 and complete their new hire training on April 30, and we’d be able to staff the squad on May 1.”
The city has long financially struggled to hire public safety officers to serve the city’s rapidly growing population. Last April, Clovis
started
collecting a 1% sales tax, Measure Y, to gather an estimated $26 million in revenue annually to support the city’s operational needs, including hiring more firefighters.
Clovis’s fire department will receive a $2 million grant over the next three years to partially fund six firefighter positions. In the first two years, the local cost share is 25%, and it increases to 65% in the third year, according to a document submitted to the City Council.
For the first year, Clovis will pay $140,000 from its General Fund for its share of the cost.
The city originally
planned
to hire 50 additional police positions, 18 fire positions, and 14 parks and streets positions by fiscal year 2030 through Measure Y, which generated by the newly implemented 1% sales tax.
In 2025, the fire department’s response time to emergency calls was 7:48 minutes, 78 seconds longer than the goal of 6:30 minutes. The effective response force time for fire incidents was 12:14 minutes, 104 seconds longer than the goal of 10:30 minutes, according to the preliminary annual data Ekk shared with the council.
To support the new hires and to meet the city’s established squad staffing requirements, the department also sought the council’s approval to purchase equipment and add supervision positions.
A $909,000 cost from Measure Y will be made to fund the costs to promote three fire captains and three engineers, as well as additional equipment, according to the council document.
This is the second time for Clovis to receive this federal grant. In 2019, the city used the same source of grant to hire nine firefighters, Ekk told the council.
After the three-year grant period, the city will continue to fund the positions.
“The squad will stay in service after that third year, then the city’s on the hook for 100% of the staffing,” Ekk said. “I think it’s just important to say we’re not going to hire for three years now and let people go.”
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