Union Study Finds Bethlehem, PA, Needs Firefighters

Bethlehem union officials said their presentation wasn't intentionally held the day before the mayor presented the budget.

By Lindsay Weber

Source The Morning Call (TNS)

Oct. 31, 2025

3 min read

Bethlehem does not have enough firefighters to adequately protect the city and its residents from fire dangers, according to a study backed by the city’s fire union.

The study was conducted by the International Association of Fire Fighters’ GIS department, which used city data from 2021 through 2024. The study was commissioned and paid for by IAFF Local 735, which represents Bethlehem’s firefighters. IAFF Local 735 President Lou Jimenez presented the findings at a public safety committee meeting at City Hall on Wednesday afternoon, the day before Mayor J. William Reynolds presented plans for the city’s 2026 budget, which did not propose adding firefighter jobs.

Jimenez said the fire union has a good relationship with city leadership and did not intentionally schedule the presentation right ahead of the budget — rather, the union wanted to present the study’s findings as quickly as possible, and the report was finalized last week.

According to the study’s findings, the city’s level of staffing is below levels recommended by the National Fire Protection Association. The department is budgeted for 104 personnel, below the levels of staffing in 1976, according to Jimenez.

The city staffs 18 firefighters citywide per shift, below the 30 recommended by the NFPA. Further, Bethlehem’s minimum staffing level for one engine is two firefighters and one officer, below the NFPA’s recommendation of at least three firefighters and one officer on one engine.

City firefighters also are responding to high-priority incidents within four minutes 80% of the time, below the 90% benchmark set by the NFPA, the report states. The lower level of staffing is a concern because “seconds matter” when it comes to saving lives during a fire response, Jimenez and other fire union advocates said.

“The more people we have on hand, the better we can combat emergencies,” Jimenez said.

He said he wanted the city to avoid tragedies like the 2025 Fall River assisted living fire, where a blaze at a Massachusetts nursing home killed 10 residents and injured 30 people, including firefighters.

The Bethlehem Fire Department received widespread accolades for its response to a five-alarm fire at Five 10 Flats in May, which gutted the apartment building but caused no deaths or injuries. Jimenez credited people spotting and quickly calling in the fire on the building’s roof, which allowed fire personnel to respond in time to prevent tragedy, but added that “had it been 2 a.m. in the morning, it could have been a totally different outcome.”

“We do not need an emergency like that in this city. I don’t want to see any of us hurt or die because we don’t have enough people,” Jimenez said.

The study also calls for the city to open another fire station, near Linden and East Goepp streets, to better serve the northeast region of the city.

Reynolds said Thursday the union had not yet shared a copy of the study with his office. The city already has issued a request for proposals from firms to conduct a study on the fire department’s efficiency, Reynolds said, which will also evaluate the department’s staffing levels. Bethlehem last year began hiring recruits from the Allentown Fire Academy, which trains prospective firefighters twice a year instead of once a year, allowing it to more quickly fill vacancies.