Southington Fire Department Awarded 11th Largest SAFER Grant in the Country
The Southington Fire Department was awarded a $3.03 million dollar grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on September 30.
The grant, which is part of the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) program, will facilitate the hiring of an additional 12 firefighters. It was the only SAFER grant awarded in Connecticut, the largest in New England, the second largest in the Northeast and the 11th largest in the country.
“The energy in the fire department is electrifying because it's such a monumental award for the department and the town. It's something that everyone's been trying to work towards for a long time, working with elected leaders, and under several different fire chiefs. It’s finally come to a point where we could have the resources available to make this happen and really solve decades of issues,” said Captain Daniel Comen, who wrote and submitted the grant proposal for the department.
The size of the grant is especially notable, given that other departments receiving it include those of Los Angeles and Sacramento. It comes amid staffing shortages within the Southington department, and that need was what ultimately drove FEMA to award the grant.
Staffing issues have existed for decades, Comen said. Fourteen years ago, there were over 100 volunteer firefighters in town. Now, there are approximately 20. The fire station at 35 Clark Street is only staffed on weekdays due to this.
The SAFER grant will allow the Clark Street station to be staffed 24/7, which will in turn lower response times. That was the goal for a smaller SAFER grant the department got in 2021, but this grant will see that goal finally become realized.
“It will ultimately lead to us having three-staff fire stations 24/7, then increase the daily 24-hour staffing. Right now, that number is seven firefighters maximum, and it can drop to six. But with the grant, it will go to 11 firefighters that can drop to 10. And that's all the time. Unlike right now, where the staffing at the Clark station is only 25% of the hours a week,” said Comen.
The 12 additional firefighters will also allow the department to rely less on neighboring towns. Currently, if the department is called to a large fire, they rely on support from nearby departments to keep the stations running while Southington responds to the emergency.
“Our goal is to reduce our mutual aid requests for routine fires by around 50 percent,” said Comen. “We have to meet certain staffing benchmarks per the National Fire Protection Association: the number of firefighters present within a certain amount of minutes. In order to do that now, we have to call mutually from the cities of Meriden, Bristol, New Britain, Plainville and Cheshire. The grant will allow us to rely more on our in-town staffing, and then reduce what we need from other towns, only relying on them for station coverage as needed.”
Fire Commissioner Tim Wilk described the grant as monumental and said it will be vital to the department.
“We know that we are on the cusp of something – and I don't use the term lightly –monumental. We feel like we've moved heaven, and next we’re trying to move earth,” said Wilk.
Comen had less than three weeks to write the grant proposal after the town council approved the application, but felt that it was the perfect time to apply for such a large grant. The SAFER program will be essentially retired soon, he said, and the awards are particularly high this year.
The grant not only fit with the current goals of the department, it will also allow it to save money in several areas such as overtime.
“It's a huge ask, but it's really the only way that we can get this done. It also builds in cost savings. It allows us to have some relief from overtime staffing because it absorbs around $400,000 in overtime by adding an extra firefighter to cover some vacancies,” said Comen.
The next step is for town council to give its blessing for the award at its meeting on October 13. Wilk is optimistic that the grant will pass, since the department has continuously made clear to the council that staffing shortages are becoming a serious problem.
“The next step is that it's got to go through the town council. They're reviewing the grant itself right now, and the terms. Finances is working with the town to do a financial workup to see what the bottom-line expenses will be. I thought we did a reasonably good job articulating that, but they're doing their due diligence as they should. We'll be holding our breath,” said Wilk.
If it moves forward, the hiring process would begin on July 1 of next year. The department intends to hire between six to eight experienced firefighters, and draw the rest from new hires along with volunteers who are promoted to full-time career firefighters.
The 12 new additions will benefit not only the department, but the community. Comen said it will get firefighters to the scene of fires faster, as more hands are available to help.
“Our goal is, no matter where you are in Southington, six minutes to have a fire truck at your front door,” said Comen. “This will allow us to achieve that goal.”
