Recruiting troubles continue to plague the Bellevue-Dayton Fire Department, even as the number of emergency service runs increased in the month of November, Fire Chief Christopher Adkins reported at this month’s Dayton and Bellevue city council meetings.
“We’re too busy to keep hiring,” Adkins said when he summarized his monthly report at the Dayton Community and Meeting Center on Dec. 6.
According to the publicly available report, there were 212 emergency runs in Dayton and Bellevue (both of which share a single fire department) in November. This brings the department’s year-to-date total to just under 2,400. Compared with the year-to-date total of about 2090 in November of 2021, that’s an increase of roughly 13%.
Of the total 212 runs, 67 were for fires with the remaining 145 occurring due to emergency medical needs, including calls related to COVID-19, injuries and drug overdoses. The report indicated that the department was seeing “cases of the flu as well.”
This increase in activity comes at a time when the department’s staff is stretched thin. Last month the Dayton-Bellevue FD saw the resignations of two fire fighter-EMTs, both of whom left to take higher-paying jobs elsewhere.
Another left for a higher paying position on December 4, and another will retire at the end of the year, meaning the department will have lost 4 fire fighter-EMTs in the span of two months.
Adkins has posted job advertisements, but he has struggled to find experienced, trained candidates. He did manage to hire two new recruits early this month; however, their experience is limited. One is a paramedic with no fire fighting experience, and the other is an EMT with very little fire fighting experience.
“Both [are] very green, but they’re very eager to learn,” Adkins said at the Bellevue City Council meeting on Dec. 14. “And I think they’re going to work out really really well for us.”
The department plans to utilize part-time labor from experienced medics and fire fighters to address the labor gap in the meantime. Adkins described the tight spot the department finds itself in: Dayton and Bellevue lack their own fire and EMS academy, which makes cultivating a pool of local trained candidates difficult.
In addition, the cities’ contributions to department’s budget are slim compared to neighboring communities. Public documents corroborate this: The Bellevue-Dayton Fire Department’s budget is about half of Newport’s, just under a fifth of Florence’s and about a tenth of Covington’s.
Granted, those communities are larger than Dayton and Bellevue, but the smaller budget inevitably results in lower salaries. The lack of an academy also means that it’s very hard to guarantee thorough training for fresh recruits.
As a result, the department has fast-tracked its training process for rookies. New recruits currently receive a two-week orientation followed by shadowing and on-the-job training. It’s not ideal, but it’s all the department can currently manage, the Chief claims.
Bellevue Council member Ryan Salzman expressed his interest in helping with the department’s shortage at the council meeting on Dec. 14. He asked Adkins to consider an exact budgeting figure as the city prepares for its 2023 planning.
“As we look towards our visioning session in February–what dollar amount?” Salzman asked. “What do you think it’s going to take?”
Adkins then joked, “$37 million,” a comment that prompted laughter from the council members. No serious figures were discussed at the meeting.
A Fire Board meeting is scheduled for December 21 at 6:00 pm at the Callahan Center in Bellevue. Job seekers interested in applying to the Bellevue-Dayton Fire Department can do so at the department’s website.