Town Officials Mull Firefighter Staffing Options in Hazelton, PA

Hiring trained volunteer firefighters to work part-time might address a call that Hazleton’s career firefighters have made to increase ranks, Hazleton Mayor Jeff Cusat said.

Cusat said he plans to meet with a labor attorney on Thursday to draft a propsal to present to the firefighters’ union and the city’s volunteer fire companies.

“If the union’s biggest concern is volunteers not showing up, what’s better than to have them sitting in the station and responding with the career guys,” Cusat said.

Career firefighters who belong to Local 507 of International Association of Fire Fighters expressed their worries about staffing on their Facebook page and at a city council meeting last month.

During the holidays, firefighters handled various types of calls with limited staffing.

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day were particularly busy when 11 calls occurred.

Volunteers responded with career firefighters to three house fires but volunteers did not go to three other fire alarms, two medical assists or a motor vehicle incident on those holidays.

On Dec. 30, a medic responding to a carbon monoxide alert immediately contacted the fire department. Three firefighters driving three pieces of apparatus and an officer in charge responded to a double home where they removed one unresponsive person from the basement for immediate medical attention. Three other people needed medical care. Firefighters then forced their way into the other half of the home, where carbon monoxide levels were dangerous and where they were told four people resided. Fortunately, the post says, no one was inside.

“Incidents like this clearly demonstrate why a safer staffing model is essential for the City of Hazleton,” the post says. “… More firefighters on scene means critical tasks can be completed simultaneously rather than sequentially, reducing exposure time, improving response effectiveness, and ultimately saving lives.”

City Council member John Nilles, who is a volunteer firefighter, said he would like to discuss staffing with firefighters in private but also hold a public work session after a council meeting to explain the issue, which all parties agree is complex.

Nilles said the construction of warehouses and other industrial buildings creates more structures to protect against fire and brings in new residents who take jobs but also need more public services like fire and police protection and road improvements to address traffic increases.

Over the years, especially since people could telephone 911 for emergencies, the number of calls has increased.

Last year the fire department answered 1,064 calls, and firefighters responded to 999 calls the year before that.

Like most places around the nation, people don’t have as much time to volunteer so Nilles said volunteer firefighters might not respond to every call, such as a burned food on a stove.

“If you get a confirmed working house fire and they put out the second tone: Boom. You’re going to get guys,” he said.

Shawn McArdle, president of the local firefighters’ union, said career firefighters have to treat every call the same, “like it’s the real deal.”

Calls happen at the same time, too, as on New Year’s Eve when a 2-year-old was locked in a car while firefighters were responding to an automatic alarm, McArdle said.

Currently, the fire department has 20 firefighters on the payroll. They work in four groups of five. But when officers are sick, injured or on vacation, as few as three firefighters can be on duty per shift along with a chief or officer in charge.

McArdle said the firefighers would like the city to hire eight more firefighters, who would be assigned to four groups of seven and assure more firefighters would be on each shift.

The union is being reasonable, he said, by not asking Hazleton to meet staffing requirements of National Fire Protection Assocation, which would entail hiring even more firefighters.

Adding firefighters to the rolls would cut down on overtime pay and get more firefighters to the scene faster and increase the chances of saving lives and property, McArdle said.

“It’s not us versus them,” McArdle said of the union, volunteers and government officials. “It’s all of us together working for the best for the city.”

Cusat said it can cost up to $150,000 to hire a firefighter at a starting salary of $54,035, family health insurance of $58,000 and equipment and training.

Firefighters who have completed training spend six months at an academy in Allentown where they are paid 4% less than their starting salary.

The city raised property taxes by 22% this year and faces other budget constraints, Nilles and Cusat point out.

Incentives granted to warehouse builders and other industrial developers offer tax discounts for up to 10 years.

Until those properties pay full taxes, the city has to deal with rising costs and demands for service.

Health insurance for all employees went up $880,000 this year. The city is paying on a $10 million bond taken out to repave streets, and an agreement with Flock Safety for security cameras, license plate readers, gunshot detectors and drones that respond to emegencies will cost $4.4 million over 10 years

Meanwhile, the city detected that Amazon had been paying approximately $300,000 a year in taxes it didn’t owe to Hazleton for a warehouse in Hazle Twp.

And an agreement through which Hazleton City Authority paid up to a half million dollars annually has expired, although the city and the authority are trying to renegotiate a pact.

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