Keller fire department seeks FEMA grant to fill out staff

By Linda Taylor in The Keller Citizen
Keller Fire-Rescue has the wheels but not the crew. That’s why the department plans to apply for a federal grant that would pay the salaries of six more firefighter-paramedics.

“Currently we only have two of our three ambulances staffed full-time,” Fire Chief Dan Gaumont said. “Six additional firefighters would allow us to have that third ambulance staffed full-time also.”

The grant, administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, would give each new hire a $60,000 salary for two years. After that, the city must assume their salaries, which total $360,000 a year, to keep them.

The department got a third ambulance in May. It is housed in the new Fire Station No. 4. In 2008, nearly $600,000 was set aside to hire nine people to staff the nearly $4 million station.

“The good thing is that we do have the third ambulance, and it is fully equipped. But at this time we just can’t afford to hire the additional staff,” Mayor Pat McGrail said. “Sometimes we do have the personnel to staff the third ambulance, but we don’t always. That is why the grant is so important to us.”

Each ambulance is staffed by two to three people and costs about $170,000.

The department, which employs 25 full-time equivalent firefighter-paramedics, has an average of 14 firefighters on duty at any given time. The National Fire Protection Association recommends departments the size of Keller have 15 firefighters on the scene at any house fire.

“Keller has never had that many firefighters on duty at one time,” City Manager Dan O’Leary said. “Most cities include mutual aid agreements to get to those numbers. While we are able to get plenty of people on the scene at every fire, our goal is to have the minimum number ourselves in order to improve our insurance rating.”

If Keller is approved for the grant, Gaumont must ask the City Council for approval to accept the grant because it will require an expenditure of $360,000 during the third year of the grant’s term. At that time the council would have to see if the amount would fit into the city’s budget.

“If the answer is no, then we will just tell them we are not able to accept the grant,” Gaumont said.