By Sofia Montoya-Deck
Capital Gazette
ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, Md. — A $4.97 million federal grant will help fund 26 positions in the Anne Arundel County Fire Department over the next three years, officials announced this week.
With the new positions, the department will be able to meet staffing recommendations on larger firefighting vehicles and keep more emergency units available to respond to calls, Capt. Jenny Macallair told the Capital Gazette.
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“It’s part of a larger, long-term effort to make sure that as the county continues to grow and as our call volume continues to grow that we’re doing the right thing in the department and growing in a responsible way,” said Macallair, a 17-year veteran of the department.
Each of the 26 positions funded by the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant will require about five firefighters to fill, according to Macallair, since multiple employees will cover shifts within the 26 full-time-equivalent positions.
She said the department’s budget has been planned to sustain these positions even after the grant expires in three years.
“Adding 26 positions will have a positive impact across our entire response system, giving us greater flexibility to put resources where they are needed most,” Chief Trisha Wolford said in a news release.
The SAFER grant program, administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, provides funding to fire departments to help increase or maintain the number of trained front-line EMT/Firefighters available in their communities.
Every firefighter in Anne Arundel is cross-trained as an emergency medical technician. The department additionally has about 100 paramedics with advanced training.
Department officials have not yet determined which of its 31 stations will receive the additional positions. Officials must first assess factors such as call volume and station capacity to determine where staffing needs are greatest, Macallair said.
Countywide, the department responded to 1,645 calls in September, and has responded to 20,510 in the past 12 months, according to its statistics dashboard.
“The SAFER grant gives us the opportunity to build on all of that,” Macallair said.
Some of the department’s busier stations already staff larger firefighting vehicles with four people, while others have only three. Additional staffing will help the department more efficiently meet standards from the National Fire Protection Association on the number of firefighters needed to respond to certain emergencies, Macallair said.
“Currently, we meet all of those standards and go above and beyond in a lot of those situations,” Macallair said. “However, because we don’t have four people necessarily in one fire engine right now, we might have to take a fire engine from Arnold and a fire engine from Severna Park to get to that staffing threshold.”
Macallair explained that pulling engines from multiple stations to meet staffing standards can leave fewer units available for other emergencies. Increasing staffing would help prevent that by allowing more engines to remain in service.
The four-person staffing model aligns with recommendations in a standards of coverage document prepared by the fire administration and fire union, which identifies areas of improvement for the department.
“Our residents deserve a fire department staffed to help them on their worst days, and our members deserve the resources to ensure they can go home safely at the end of every shift,” said Casey Cameron, president of International Association of Fire Fighters’ Local 1563 union, in a news release.
Macallair said the 26 new positions will be available once the budget goes into effect next year.
New hires will need to complete a six-month academy and a probationary period in the field before becoming certified, but the positions can initially be filled through other means, like overtime.
As of October, the department has zero uniformed vacancies, which Macallair says is reflective of its continuous growth.
“We are very excited about it and it is moving us in the right direction,” she said. “This is a good thing for everybody.”
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