By Haley Parsley
The Sacramento Bee
FOLSOM, Calif. — The Folsom Fire Department plans to return an engine to service after converting vacant firefighter positions to single-role EMT and paramedic positions, Fire Chief Jason Solak said Tuesday.
The department will convert 10 vacant firefighter positions and add four new positions to hire 14 paramedics and EMTs, Solak told the City Council at its Tuesday meeting.
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The move will cut costs while streamlining emergency medical services, Solak said. He estimated the changes would save up to $210,800 annually. The City Council unanimously approved the department’s plan.
Around 80% of the department’s calls for service are related to emergency medical care, according to Battalion Chief Nick Lawlor. The other 20% involve fires, rescues and investigations of natural gas odors, among other calls.
Under the current model, firefighters respond to all calls for service, regardless of the type of call.
But most of the time, firefighters treat patients and transport them to the hospital rather than provide firefighting services, Lawlor said in an interview Wednesday.
By hiring EMTs and paramedics to do that work without firefighter certifications, the department will save on salaries, overtime and training costs, Solak said.
The change follows a round of cost-cutting measures last year, as the City Council grappled with a $3 million budget shortfall that prompted cuts across multiple departments.
In September 2025, the council approved a plan to cut five filled positions and eliminate 15 vacant positions to close the deficit.
The plan also took one fire engine out of service and reassigned its crew to other fire stations. The change was estimated to save $1 million annually, according to a Fire Department news release announcing the cuts.
Returning the engine and its crew to service was the union’s first priority during negotiations, said firefighter and shop steward Tyler Smith.
“Our number one focus in moving forward with this single role program from the labor perspective was to ensure that our suppression capabilities were as they should be,” said Smith.
“We wanted to do whatever we could to ensure that our suppression capabilities were at the level that they should be, that the community expects,” he said. “We worked with our admin to come to this position, where we were able to create enough savings to put our engine back in service without generating any need for additional funding.”
Solak estimated the changes would save between $26,300 and $46,300 annually in salaries and benefits. The department also expects to save $164,500 in one-time recruitment and training costs this fiscal year because the new EMT and paramedic recruits will undergo a shorter, less expensive training program.
Solak said Tuesday that the department plans to create a pathway for the new hires to become firefighters.
“We have great people,” he said. “You want to retain those people, and so helping them achieve their goals is really a goal of ours.”
The department was in the final stages of hiring for the 14 new roles, Solak told the council. If all went according to plan, the recruits would begin the department’s emergency medicine academy Monday.
Does your department use single-role EMTs and paramedics to balance rising EMS demand, staffing needs and fire suppression coverage?
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