Idaho Falls Fire Department awarded $3M federal grant to hire firefighters | Local News | postregister.com

2022-09-24 04:54:46 By : Mr. Havad He

Idaho Falls firefighters participate in a mass casualty drill at Idaho Falls Regional Airport in this submitted photo.

Idaho Falls firefighters participate in a mass casualty drill at Idaho Falls Regional Airport in this submitted photo.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded the Idaho Falls Fire Department a $3 million grant that will pay for the first three years of wages and benefits for 12 firefighters for its new southern station.

The department announced the grant, which totals $2,947,990, in a Thursday news release. Department officials applied for the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant earlier this year, a department news release said.

“This grant will allow our fire department to continue to provide its top-level fire and EMS service as our community faces growth, without putting additional burdens on local property taxpayers,” Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper said in the release.

The wages and benefits for the additional firefighters will come to approximately $1 million per year, the release said. After the three-year grant period expires, ongoing investment in personnel will be paid for by the income stream resulting from the 2022 Senate Bill 1283, which increased Medicaid reimbursements to EMS agencies.

The Idaho Falls Fire Department, which has expended its coverage area with service agreements with Bonneville County and portions of Jefferson and Bingham counties, now serves a population of about 155,000 over 3,500 square miles, according to its 2021 Annual Report. The department currently has 125 full-time personnel, according to its annual report.

The department has seen a steady increase in calls for service over the past four years. In 2021, it responded to 3,000 more calls (a total of 17,230) than it did in 2019 (14,282), the report showed.

“While we were experiencing unprecedented growth and calls for service kept trending upward at a record-breaking pace, our staffing levels remained the same,” Fire Chief Duane Nelson said in the release. “Knowing that demand was quickly outpacing our capabilities and would be unsustainable for our personnel, we put our heads together and started working on finding creative solutions that would sustain this community well into the future.”

The FEMA grant was one of those solutions. Another was for the city of Idaho Falls to contract with Pro-Tec Fire Services to cover fire services at the Idaho Falls Regional Airport starting in October. The Idaho Falls Fire Department currently covers the airport’s fire service needs out of airport station #3, but the airport’s growth necessitated changes to that service, the release said.

Earlier this month the City Council approved the purchase of a Bonneville County Fire Protection District fire station on 1.2 acres located at 370 East 65th South. The southern station, set to open in the spring of 2023, will address emergency response needs resulting from rapid growth south of Sunnyside Road, the release said.

Nelson said at the time that it was advantageous for the city to acquire the fire station because of the growth the city is experiencing in the south, partly due to the addition of new schools.

Next month, the department will start work on the southern station by placing asphalt on the front apron and parking area, ordering and installing dispatching hardware and working on other minor needs. The fire engine and ambulance that were operating out of airport station #3 will be relocated to the southern station.

Anyone interested in learning about careers with the fire department should visit its website idahofallsidaho.gov/1199/Careers.

The city of Idaho Falls is continuing to grow its fire and emergency services coverage area after purchasing a fire station in the southern pa…

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