Harrison Mantas
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
FORT WORTH, Texas — The Fort Worth firefighters union, in its effort to increase the department’s staffing, is pointing to a 4-year-old insurance report that faulted the city for not having enough firefighters.
Union president Michael Glynn, who pushed the City Council in September to budget for more firefighters, said the report is further proof the city is understaffing its fire department.
It’s not that simple, said Assistant City Manager Valerie Washington. While she acknowledged the report’s findings, Washington argued there are a complex number of factors that go into deciding whether the city has enough firefighters.
“We have to be good stewards of the taxpayers money,” Washington said, while arguing for a more thorough staffing study of the fire department’s operation.
The 2017 Insurance Services Organization report gave the city its highest rating, which insurance companies can use to lower business and homeowner insurance rates.
However, the city received its lowest scores for not having enough firefighters and not having them properly deployed.
Washington said the report’s findings did offer the city good information to help it manage the fire department, but noted the city had either opened or planned to open three fire stations since the report was published.
Station 42 at 450 E. Rendon Crowley Road opened in January 2018. Station 45, north of the intersection of U.S. 287 and Interstate 35W, broke ground in July, and a temporary station in Walsh is scheduled to open in December. Each station is staffed by 14 firefighters, Washington said.
Washington pointed to the increasing number of emergency medical calls the fire department is handling versus active fires. She said this requires a reevaluation of how the department is deploying its services, which may include more firefighters.
“I do think through the organizational review there may be some recommendations on how to better use our current staff that I don’t think we should discount, " Washington said.
The fire department sets a benchmark of four minutes for the first engine to arrive on a fire or EMS call. A June 24 report from fire chief Jim Davis found the department met that standard less than 50% of the time the past two years.
Glynn pointed to an Oct. 24 house fire in the Walsh development in far west Fort Worth, saying it took more than eight minutes for the first firefighters to arrive, twice the benchmark time.
Washington cited road conditions, deployment strategy, and the types of calls the department is responding to as some of the factors that may be affecting the increase in response times.
She acknowledged the city has grown since the report was published in 2017, but argued this is why the city needs an updated staffing study.
The City Council amended the 2020 budget to hire 10 more firefighters. It came with the caveat the city would conduct a staffing study to help the city understand its deficiencies when it comes to fire protection.
Glynn said this was a drop in the bucket.
“You don’t need a staffing study to tell you we need more firefighters,” Glynn said. “My guys are tired and they’re being stretched thin.”
At the Nov. 2 City Council work session, council members pressed Washington and city staff to get the results of the staffing study back ahead of budget discussions for 2023.
The city is asking potential consultants to have some usable data for the council by February or March to help with those discussions, Washington said.
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