Angelica Ramos
Contributing Writer
MONTGOMERY CO.- Montgomery Fire and EMS addressed the Board of Supervisors on May 28, 2024 regarding paid daytime fire staffing.
Deputy County Administrator Christopher S. Lawrence and Micheal Geary addressed the Board of Supervisors on May 28, 2024 in a presentation advocating for paid daytime positions for Shawsville/Elliston Fire Services.
“Our primary goal tonight is to kind of confirm a consensus,” Lawerence said, “ from the board to proceed with advertising for 12 new positions that are part of the budget because that’s going to take several months to hire them.”
Over the past year in Shawsville and Elliston, there has been a decline in fire and EMS response. What that means is that in 2023, an average dispatch to en route was nine minutes and 16 seconds in time. In 2023, an average for on-scene dispatch was a little over 16 minutes. Thus far in 2024, enroute times increased to a little over 11 minutes and on-scene times increased to almost 20 minutes to dispatch and respond. There have been 57 total fire calls thus far in 2024.
Shawsville/Elliston Fire would like to hire 12 full-time fire personnel which would allow them to have two shift teams consisting of six firefighters. These shifts would be 12 hours long, seven days a week and be able to staff two fire trucks or fire vehicles (depending on call type). These 12-hour shifts would be daytime shifts with volunteer firefighters covering the evening shifts. Each shift will have a captain, a lieutenant, and four regular firefighters with part-time staff filling in the gaps. These paid positions will go through training in accordance with state mandates, but the training will also be helpful for staff and volunteer firefighters. The presentation to the Board of Supervisors was to explain how the paid positions would work, how the chain of command would work and to be given the go-ahead to begin hiring and training as that process will take several months.
The Board of Supervisors gave consensus for Elliston Fire and EMS to move forward with advertising for the 12 positions.
