Erin Fire Chief Dan Callaghan is looking for a few more good men.
In his Feb. 29 report to council, he told of recent recruitments for the department stations in Erin and Hillsburgh.
The applications have been reviewed and letters drafted to those who don’t meet the criteria being sought.
“We’ve picked 15 to be interviewed.”
Of those, he anticipated eight or more would be hired.
Callaghan said the department is currently dealing with attendance issues.
Councillor Barb Tocher cited the staffing of 30 and 30 at each department. “How many are there right now?”
Callaghan said the department is six short in Erin and two short in Hillsburgh.
Because of the reduced staffing “I’m afraid pretty soon people are going to start burning out. Guys are constantly going on calls.”
He said the department has been lucky because of the weather and the reduced numbers of accidents. However, depending on weather this spring, dry weather could result in more grass fires, he said.
He said with eight men down, the department was hoping to bring eight more people on board.
Tocher said council had not changed its policy on the overall number of firefighters.
Callaghan said that some of the current crew are dealing with health issues. Tocher recommended that Callaghan consider keeping a few names on file in case of retirements.
“The problem is training costs,” Callaghan said, adding there are definitely a few retirements coming by December.
“But why hire people eight months ahead of time, when they could be hired next year?” asked Tocher.
Callaghan said there are significant costs to train recruits.
“This is special recruit training, not the week-to-week training done at the local fire hall.” He said if additional people can be brought in for training now, the overall cost would not increase – as compared to setting up a separate training session for recruits next year.
“Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish,” Callaghan advised. He said costs to train 8 or 12 in a single session is the same.
“If you start from day one, you are paying the labour costs for the trainers – again.”
Callaghan was asked when new recruits could be expected on the trucks. He said people with fire qualifications would be fast tracked through because of previous experience. Without that experience, recruits need to go through the training.
Maieron added even if recruits are not hired immediately, they would still have the training to start work faster once they are hired.
Callaghan noted recruit training is not done every year.
“The last time was three years ago.”
He said “You save money by training more people now.”
Tocher said even if training is done now, bunker gear would not be purchased until the time of hiring.
Maieron said with a pool of stand-bys, they would ready to come on board as needed.
“I can see the logic in having a few extra eggs in the cupboard, just in case you drop a couple.”
