Shannon Miller —
An application for a grant that would be used to restore and improve the Ashland Fire Department staffing capabilities was approved for submission at a meeting of the Ashland Board of City Commissioners Thursday evening.
The application will be sent to the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA, and the 2-year, $1.1 million grant will be awarded at the end of September, said Ashland Fire Chief Scott Penick.
The fire department has never applied for the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grant in the past, but recent changes in requirements have made the deparment a better candidate, Penick said.
The three priorities of the grant are to rehire firefighters who have been laid off, fill positions that are not currently filled because of budget constraints and to create new positions within the department. If the department is awarded the grant, three vacant positions will be filled and three new firefighter positions will be created, Penick said.
National Fire Protection Association standards require a certain number of firefighters on each shift, and the department wants to make sure they can reach those standards.
“There are 17 positions per shift. Right now there are 16 and we’re one short on each turn. This grant will fill the other positions,” said Keith Salmon, president of the local 706 firefighters union.
Having those positions filled should help with emergency response and rescue time, he said.
“There are 16 tasks that have to occur in the first 10 minutes. Rescue is one of them... Support has to be in place to make rescue happen, and 17 is the minimum for that,” Salmon said.
Having more firefighters on staff may also allow the department to respond to two emergencies simultaneously, Penick said.
“It will allow us to put more staff on the trucks. With extra people, we may be able to keep people on reserve, in case something else happen. It should mean better response time and better service to the community,” Penick said.
SHANNON MILLER can be reached at smiller@dailyindependent.com or
(606) 326-2657.
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