By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — The Fire Department is continuing to deal with staffing challenges, Chief/Emergency Management Director Glenn Davis said during the Finance Committee’s recent budget summit.
Davis said his “biggest concern” for fiscal year 2025 is the “recruitment and retention of call firefighters.”
“We continue to be busy,” said Davis. “Like every other industry in the world right now, it is hard to stay fully staffed. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find Lynnfield residents who want to be call firefighters.”
Davis said he has hired eight new call firefighters over the past 18 months.
“Four are currently enrolled at the fire academy in Rowley,” said Davis. “We hope to get them as productive, useful working members within the next four to five months. But over that same period, I have lost 14 call firefighters either to full-time departments around us or they just realized it didn’t fit in with their life. They have other full-time careers that pay the bills, and have found it increasingly difficult to keep up with the certifications, do the hours of training and the minimum response that we require.”
Davis said the attrition of call firefighters has made it “increasingly difficult to stay adequately staffed.”
“I will be asking for additional staff next year,” said Davis.
Davis proposed hiring four permanent firefighters to work overnight shifts in FY24, but the four positions were not funded last year. He said the Fire Department will be applying for another Staffing For Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant from FEMA to fully fund the new firefighter positions he will be requesting for the next fiscal year.
“We were not successful last year,” said Davis in reference to the FY24 grant application. “There were departments such as Worcester and Haverhill that got large grants. We typically ask for about $1 million. It’s a three-year period of performance for that to offset their salaries.”
Davis recalled that there is an EMT staffing crisis, and a lot of private ambulance companies are having difficulty hiring and retaining EMTs.
“We continue to struggle with mutual aid responses,” said Davis. “There is still an EMT staffing crisis because there are not enough EMTs to do the jobs out there. Lynnfield has been fortunate. We have been well supported by the town. We have three fully stocked ambulances that allow us to protect the residents of Lynnfield. Even when we respond to a mutual aid call in one of our surrounding communities, we are not stripping Lynnfield. We are making sure Lynnfield residents are safe first and foremost.”
Davis said the increasing out-of-town ambulance transports has benefited the Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Service Enterprise Account.
“When we do a transport in a neighboring community or Lynnfield, we bill for those services and that money comes back into my enterprise account to offset my overhead, cost of operations and all of the above,” said Davis.
Town Administrator Rob Dolan said the Fire Department’s staffing challenges is going to be a major focus area in the FY25 budget development process. He recalled that Planning and Conservation Director Emilie Cademartori was the last full-time employee that the town hired.
“We have gone six years without hiring any additional full-time staff,” said Dolan. “This year is going to have to be a little different.”
Dolan said maintaining the Fire Department’s combined permanent and call firefighter model is in the town’s best interest.
“Maintaining this very unique system is in the financial interest of this community,” said Dolan. “Going to a 24-hour model would cost at least an additional $1 million. In order to keep this system that works, it is in our interest to continually invest and tweak this system. This system is going to need tweaking every few years to maintain it.”
Dolan noted that the Fire Department’s call firefighters are “the highest paid in the area.”
“We are trying to spur involvement, but we have a couple of problems here,” said Dolan. “Four call people are doing 80 percent of the work. During my last job, I couldn’t leave my house without someone telling which number their grandson was on the police or fire list. It was all day. Most communities with full-time fire departments are down between 10 to 20 firefighters because you can’t find them. Our guys are already trained, and other communities want to hire call firefighters from Lynnfield. Our call people don’t get benefits, they are not in the union and are almost pier diem staffing. The system can continue, but we have to look at a two-year plan. The Select Board is very engaged in this. I think this is an area where we have to invest in on the town side.”
Davis said the Fire Department’s current operating budget for FY24 is “100 percent on track for this year.”