AMHERST — As fire tore through an apartment building on Belchertown Road last month, the first firefighter who responded to Alpine Commons was the only person on board the fire engine.
That firefighter from the Central Fire Station was unable to begin any work on combating the blaze.
“There’s nothing we can do with one guy on one fire truck,” said Fire Chief Walter “Tim” Nelson.
Even though eight firefighters were on duty June 4, four were already handling medical calls on two ambulances at the time the fire broke out, while three other firefighters arrived a short time later on a second fire engine from the North Fire Station, Nelson said.
Though Nelson acknowledges the lack of personnel to battle the fire did not change the outcome, noting that the fire had “a good head start,” he said the apartment fire illustrates the challenges the department faces with a minimum staffing of seven firefighter paramedics on duty when the University of Massachusetts and two colleges are not in session, and a minimum staffing of eight career firefighters during the school year.
“Getting our staff up is a goal so that we can better serve the public,” Nelson said.
To that end, Nelson said the department has applied for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant program, also known as SAFER. If selected, the two-year, $1.08 million grant would add eight professional personnel, six who would join the 42 firefighter paramedics currently “on line,” as well as one firefighter whose focus would be on prevention and another who would be dedicated to training.
“That would brings us up to 48 on the line,” Nelson said. “This is a labor intensive business, and one of the major resources we need right now are people.”
The grant, which will be awarded in late summer or early fall, would cover the full pay and benefits of those hired for the two-year period, at which time the town would determine whether it could absorb these costs into the department’s $4.5 million budget.
Amherst firefighters respond to about 6,200 calls a year, with call volume rising at about a 2 percent annual rate. Nelson said nearly 80 percent of the calls are for medical reasons at an average of 90 minutes each due to ambulance trips to out-of-town hospitals such as Cooley Dickinson in Northampton.
The ambulances also serve four surrounding towns — Hadley, Leverett, Pelham and Shutesbury, encompassing 125 square miles and 80,000 people, Nelson said.
A study 13 years ago revealed that minimum staffing should be 11 firefighters.
Nelson said runs have been climbing steadily for 15 to 20 years. With the exception the weekends when UMass provides the town money to have at least 13 firefighter paramedics on duty during peak times, roughly 20 hours on Friday and Saturday nights, “we’re barely keeping our heads above water,” he said.
But firefighters are getting tired and can’t get to all the work that needs to be done. “Our people are showing signs of stress,” Nelson said. “There’s a lot more work being done by the same pool of folks.”
Meantime, the town is about to learn what the department needs through a staffing study to be done by The Carlson Group of Andover.
“We think this company will do well in giving our staffing an objective look,” Nelson said.
Besides making recommendations about minimum staffing, the study may determine whether the department should have someone who directs, manages, supervises and coordinates the activities and operations of each shift.
“Another thing we’d like to see down the road is a shift commander,” Nelson said.
Peter Hechenbleikner, the interim town manager, said in an email that the staffing and deployment study, which will be complete in three to four months, will inform the town as to what, if any, need there is for additional staffing.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
