More rescue staff backed

By Kipp Hanley

Published: August 6, 2008

The City of Manassas Finance Committee unanimously recommended the immediate hiring of 11 new fire and rescue personnel on Wednesday.

On Monday, the city council will vote on the matter.

This spring, the council passed a 10-cent fire levy to help pay for these positions, which could cost the city nearly $1 million in fiscal 2009. However, the positions themselves weren't approved with the idea that the yet-to-be-hired fire and rescue chief would make a recommendation later in the year on necessary staffing.

However, an inordinate amount of overtime for both departments is being worked since the council hired five 24-hour shift firefighters on an emergency basis this spring. The fire department alone worked nearly $37,000 worth of overtime since that point.

With the additional positions, the fire department will be able to staff two additional firefighters per 24-hour shift. There are three 24-hour shifts for paid employees and currently three per shift. Without this additional staffing, the fire department is minimally staffed during a 24-hour period and is forfeiting Kelly Days, or days that most jurisdictions use to monitor overtime worked by 24-hour shift employees.

The additional staffing will also allow the rescue department to staff two additional EMTs per shift minus one day shift person, who will start a 24-hour shift. The Rescue Department has only three paid EMTs and a paramedic on staff during a given shift now, which does not allow them to staff both the heavy rescue equipment used for traffic accidents and fires and a separate medic unit at the same time.

When a heavy rescue unit is deployed, the rescue staff has to drop a medic unit in order to properly staff the heavy rescue unit.

To make matters worse, few volunteers are certified to staff the heavy rescue units. According to departmental statistics, the rescue department had to drop its ALS unit 33 times in the last six months due to this scenario.

Councilman Steven Smith, who serves on the finance committee, and Councilman Jonathan Way voiced their support of the immediate approval of these positions.

"If this need is not met, I think we would be shirking our responsibility," Smith said.

While he voted to recommend the hiring, committee member and Vice Mayor Andrew Harrover requested that the departments consistently provide the council with data showing where the need is the greatest for the city's emergency responders due to the large increase in funding this year.

"I think we owe it to the citizens that we have some reasonable understanding of where are our resources are going towards," Harrover said.

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-369-5738.