Northpinellas: Proposal could add fire staff, taxes

A proposal by a national fire association to require four firefighters on every fire truck could mean an increase in taxes if local fire agencies adopt the controversial measure.

The National Fire Protection Association, a leading source of technical background, data and advice on fire protection and prevention, is recommendeding four-person staffing of fire apparatus and a minimum standard of five minutes or less for response times.

About half of Pinellas County's 20 fire departments staff their engines with three persons. Other agencies strive to have four firefighters on a truck, but vacation and sick days often mean only three will ride.

The proposal, called NFPA 1710, has generated much debate among the country's fire departments. Supporters say it is long overdue and will help bring fire service up to date. Critics claim it creates a one-size-fits-all mandate on local governments and takes decision making away from individual agencies.

North Pinellas fire officials say adopting the proposed standard would require them to add firefighters, and that would not be cheap.

To meet the proposed staffing level of four personnel on every truck, Palm Harbor Fire Rescue would probably have to add a dozen new firefighters at a cost of about $500,000, said Chief James Angle.

"We're not really opposed to standards that you can set goals for and deliver good service," Angle said. "The problem is that it's a standard that's being written for the whole nation."

Unlike older urban communities, neighborhoods in North Pinellas are built with space between homes, he said. Moreover, businesses here generally have sprinkler systems. As a result, fighting fires here isn't the same as in other areas, he said.

"We don't have rows of rowhouses like they would have in Baltimore or Pittsburgh," Angle said.

Other North Pinellas fire chiefs have doubts about the need for the proposed standard.

"As a fire chief I agree it would be helpful to have some type of standard to go by, but I think that NFPA 1710 is a one-size-fits-everybody type of standard, and I think there are some places where it doesn't fit us," Oldsmar Fire Chief Scott McGuff said.

To meet the proposed standard, McGuff said he would probably have to add three firefighters at a cost of about $140,000. The department currently has 12 firefighters, three administrative staff and about a half-dozen volunteers.

To find the money to hire new firefighters, McGuff worries that departments might end up cutting prevention efforts. That, he said, could produce the unintended consequence of having more fires to fight "because you don't have your education people out there doing the job anymore."

East Lake Fire Rescue would have to add at least six firefighters to its 35-member department to meet the standard, interim Fire Chief Jeff Parks said.

"We've operated this way with three people for a number of years and never had a problem," Parks said. "I agree that we need a national standard, but I'm not sure four is what we need."

Although fire departments are not required to adopt NFPA's professional standards, most agencies do. If the proposed standard is approved by its members next month at the NFPA's annual conference in Anaheim, Calif., it has a very good chance of being made an official standard at the organization's Standards Council meeting in July in San Francisco.

If it is, and if the 20 fire departments in Pinellas County adopt the standard, it could cost $16.5-million a year, said Dwaine Booth, the county's assistant director of emergency medical services and fire administration.

And that only counts personnel costs, Booth said. In order to meet the five-minute response time, new stations may have to be built.

"It's going to be very expensive generally to fire service, but there has been really no definitive data to show that any more property and any more lives will be saved," Booth said. "We basically feel that it is an unfunded mandate that could in effect bankrupt fire agencies across the country."

In Tarpon Springs, the Fire Department puts five personnel on the engine at Station 69, which is downtown, four on the engine at Station 70, on the west side of town, and two on its ladder truck, Deputy Chief Kevin Bowman said. That, however, is the case when the department has a full shift. If firefighters are out sick, engines 69 and 70 might roll with four and three firefighters, respectively.

Making sure that every vehicle, including the ladder truck, always had at least four firefighters would probably require that the city hire 10 to 12 additional personnel, Bowman said.

"We feel we have safeguards in place, that go throughout Pinellas County, to ensure firefighter safety," Bowman said.

Even if fire agencies don't adopt the standard, it could still be costly because of the potential for liability.

"It does impact the fire departments because once these standards are established, it places liability on them if they don't meet those standards," said Williams, a member of the association who will vote against NFPA 1710.

While the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the International Association of Fire Fighters support the proposal, the National League of Cities and the International City/County Management Association oppose it.

So does St. Petersburg fire Chief Jim Callahan. "The potential is there for this to have a huge impact on every city," he said. "The unfunded mandate is what I have a problem with."

Callahan said he thinks his department provides excellent service to the community. "But it's going to be hard to deliver that level of service without something changing," he said.

- Staff writer Richard Danielson contributed to this report. Reach staff writer Maureen Byrne at 445-4163 or at byrne@sptimes.com.

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