For years the Rapid City Fire Department has failed to meet industry standards on the number of firefighters available for house fires. But a national grant may help the department may meet the standards and the increase in demand for emergency service.
And that could prevent more of the texts that Rapid City Fire Chief Mike Maltaverne dreads.
“On a regular basis around here, I get a page anytime we’re out of resources,” he says. “When all of our engines and ambulances are committed, all out on calls, I get a page – the 911 officer pages that all RCFD units are out. And that’s a very, very difficult text to see come across your phone.”
The idea that he is without resources to send immediately if needed weighs heavily on Maltaverne’s mind.
“It causes a great deal of anxiety for me. That's the kind of text that keeps me awake at night,” he said. “And so, something like this grant, it moves us off of that uneasy feeling and puts more firefighters on fire trucks."
So Maltaverne is celebrating the news that the department has won a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant for almost $1.1 million over two years. It will fund nine new firefighters positions, bringing the city up close to recommended staffing.
The city council had already added three more firefighter positions in the regular budgeting process for this year. And three more are being considered for 2017.
The nine paid for by the grant, which will be added in the next six months, are separate from those six. The fifteen spots would put the city up there a study determined it should be to adequately respond to emergencies.
And it would help crews meet response standards for house fires.
“The standard requires that you have 15 firefighters arrive at a confirmed house fire in eight minutes 90 percent of the time, " Maltaverne said." That's a best practice standard out there for fire departments to achieve. We had not been meeting that mark."
And with service calls going up at an average rate of 7.6 percent a year, the need for more firefighters has been growing.
Medical needs tied to the aging baby boomer population are part of the trend, but so are drug abuse and crime. Those, like fire calls, fall into the firefighters diverse list of responsibilities. And all of the 120 city firefighters are also trained as EMTs or paramedics.
“Overdoses, violent crime, inappropriate behavior that has somebody calling 911 for that problem, it's a growing problem," Maltaverne says. And we're seeing it here as well."
The increased construction for independent and assisted-living quarters for senior citizens are a sign that more emergency response calls are likely in the future, he said. And those take staff away from readiness when fire calls come in.
But with help from the grant, there will be more firefighters ready to respond.
The grant is for two years only, so by 2018 the city may have to find funding to continue the addition firefighters.