Morgantown Fire Department Captain Gary Freshour said it best when he told city council, “In my house I have wants and I have needs. The city is no different. It has wants and it has needs. … The needs are public safety.”
Morgantown City Council passed a first reading of the 2021 spending plan that gradually eliminates 12 grant-funded firefighter positions. Six of those are funded through 2021; six are not. Eventually, all 12 positions will disappear, as the department won’t be permitted to replace firefighters as they retire.
The jobs on the line were made possible by a $1.7 million federal SAFER grant awarded in 2017. However, it has funded the positions on a diminishing scale the past three years. The grant runs out in November.
Which means council has known for three years that a new funding source would have to be found. And it’s just now contemplating one.
According to the City of Morgantown website, the MFD has three crews with 18 firefighters each. The National Fire Protection Association says fire departments need — at minimum — 15-17 firefighters at a scene.
If Morgantown gets rid of 12 of those — we’ll say four from each of the three crews — there will only be 14 firefighters responding to incidents. That puts us below the minimum recommended number of personnel.
How can fire departments be expected to efficiently and safely respond to emergencies if they lack the most essential of all resources — manpower?
Being chronically understaffed poses a threat not just to our communities, but to the firefighters themselves. Nationally, overexertion and strain comprised the greatest percentage of firefighters’ injuries in 2018, according to the NFPA. When firefighters have to pull double-duty and work holdovers (which occurs when on-duty firefighters have to stay past their shifts due to understaffing), they push themselves beyond reasonable physical limits.
A severely understaffed fire department puts our city at risk of greater casualties — human and property — and further endangers the people we depend on to protect us.
But it’s not just Morgantown that will suffer. MFD also responds to fires in unincorporated areas around the edges of city limits and assists other departments at the scenes of major blazes or accidents.
Fortunately, there is still time to keep our fire department intact. On Tuesday, council will convene for a budget workshop, where councilors will try to find the money to save as many positions as possible, before the second reading of the budget on March 17.
We strongly encourage city council to find the funds necessary to keep all 12 firefighter positions filled.
This is not a want.
This is a need.
The safety of our city — and surrounding areas — depends on it.
Morgantown Area News
'Wednesday, May 1, 2024'
