The Forney Fire Department will receive more than $739,000 in federal funding through FEMA's Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant program. The grant will help pay for six additional firefighter positions for two years.
The Forney Fire Department will receive more than $739,000 in federal funding through FEMA's Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant program. The grant will help pay for six additional firefighter positions for two years.
The department currently has three shifts with five firefighters on each shift. With the additional firefighters, the department will be able to have seven firefighters per shift and have the capability of staffing an additional fire truck to respond to calls. The additional firefighters will also make the department NFPA 1720 compliant and meet the State of Texas requirement for two-in/two-out.
With emergency calls up 142.1% over the past five years, many within minutes of each other, the additional fire truck responding to calls can significantly ease the burden on the current fire crews. Lt. Darren Yarborough of the Forney Fire Department said that “it's going to help dramatically.”
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The department will now have ninety days to fill the positions and will begin accepting applications, interviewing, testing, and training before hiring in March of 2013. Upon construction of Fire Station #2, many of these new positions will help to staff the new station and allow the department to transfer already trained firefighters.
Russell Bannister, FFD firefighter and president of the Forney Professional Firefighters Association, said, “On behalf of the firefighters, I would just like to thank you all for making our jobs safer and making this community safer by approving this grant.”
