MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — 13 new firefighters, including 12 from the Federal Emergency Management SAFER grant, will be ready to deploy early next year.
Morgantown Fire Chief Mark Caravasos expects the new staff to bolster his department sometime in January.
“These personnel are going to be added to the department, added to the operations crew — the guys that’ll actually ride the truck and do the work,” he said. “We’re going to open the north side ladder company to help our ISO ratings and to help protect the northern end of the city.”
Using these new additions, Caravasos can now fully staff the Van Voorhis Road ladder company. Staffing that north side company was part of a recommendation by the Insurance Service Office (ISO) to helping improve Morgantown’s fire protection rating.
“Since the time that we’ve had that notification, we’ve built a new fire station on Van Voorhis Road,” Caravasos said. “And we’ve bought he apparatus necessary to put it into play. However, we didn’t have the personnel.”
Morgantown City Council adopted the $1.7 million SAFER grant over the summer, creating the 12 new positions.
“Since that time we’ve been able to successfully have a hiring test,” Caravasos said. “We’ve hired the 12 firefighters for the SAFER positions, and they are currently in training as we speak.”
Caravasos said the new hires include a mix of veteran and rookie firefighters.
“A lot of testing, obviously,” he said. “Some of these gentlemen have experience. Other ones don’t have any experience. So we bring them all up through the training, making sure that they are covered and they are trained adequately to what our standards require.”
According to preliminary numbers revealed during the Aug. 15 Morgantown City Council meeting, the city will need to provide up to an additional $465,000 in equipment, training, and other costs. That number is expected to rise to up to $1.1 million per year once the grant expires.