FLINT, MI—The Flint Fire Department is asking the city for more than $1 million to maintain all stations as grant funding used to hire dozens of firefighters will soon be exhausted.
More than $3.76 million was received by the department over the course of two years -- 2017 and 2018 -- through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant program to cover salary and benefits for firefighters.
The announcement of the funds was met with fanfare including a ceremony at Flint City Hall in July 2017 to honor 33 firefighters hired -- after losing the same amount of hires from February 2014 to February 2016 with the denial of a previous grant funding request -- along with the reopening of Fire Station 8 on the city’s south end on Atherton Road near Saginaw Street.
But those firefighter positions are now in jeopardy.
Flint Fire Chief Raymond Barton said the funding technically expired in mid-January 2019, but with a few of the firefighters hired using the SAFER grant leaving, there’s enough money left over until the end of June.
He notes the department was not able to reapply this year for additional funding because criteria has changed to allow only paid, on-call volunteers to apply for money to cover wages and salary.
The department was at 97 firefighters with the hires, but four staff members have retired and two of the SAFER grant hires found employment elsewhere.
Should Flint lose all the SAFER grant hires, Barton said the department would fall to 68 firefighters and may have to close and “brown out” some fire stations.
“At a minimum I requested if we can keep 15 to 18 (firefighters),” he said during a sit-down interview with MLive-The Flint Journal. “That would allow us to keep all stations open with minimal overtime and things.”
It would still require the department to drop to three firefighters per vehicle that would require an adjustment on some responses, after moving to four firefighters on each vehicle and adding at least 10 firefighters on each 24-hour shift with the grant funding.
“When you have to run three people, you’re not supposed to enter into a structure until you have the two in, two out unless it’s for a rescue,” said Barton. “For a room and content fire, stove fire, trash fire, you have to wait for the second truck to get there.”
On average, the city sees 600 structure fire per year not including dumpster, car and grass fires or open burns.
“We’re well over 1,100, 1,200 different types of fire (each year),” said Barton,
This includes medical runs and responding to some shooting scenes.
Barton has checked on the possibility of shifting some money from the vehicle fleet fund to help pay to retain some firefighters. The department received Community Development Block Grant, or CDBG, funds to cover the cost of some new vehicles.
However, Tamar Lewis, the city’s deputy chief of finance said at a Friday budget hearing that the fleet fund is coming from the general fund and exists to pay for maintenance and service of current and new vehicles -- not for salaries and wages.
First Ward Councilman Eric Mays suggested moving $1.7 million from the general fund into the fire budget to retain the firefighters that may be lost.
So, what about the possibility of cross-training police officers as firefighters which has been done in other communities?
“We’ve discussed it a little bit,” Barton said. “The problem is with the city of Flint we are one of the busiest departments in the country… If they already have one or two calls backed up, they can’t take a fire call.”
A 2019-2020 budget must be approved by June 31 for the new fiscal year.
Barton pointed out the department may be able to reapply for the grant funding next year if the requirements change.
MLive-The Flint Journal reporter Zahra Ahmad contributed to this story.
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