The Amherst Fire Department's Interim Fire Chief Lindsay Stromgren says the department is currently dealing with a staffing shortage. He is currently looking to fill three full-time vacancies. His comments come after accusations from the Amherst firefighters union that the response to a deck fire behind La Veracruzana Restaurant on July 1 was “unacceptable.”
Stromgren said many surrounding cities and towns are also facing a shortage.
"In particular, some of the larger departments, you may find that with Belchertown and Hadley, but I'm thinking more, I see advertisements from Northampton and Ludlow and Chicopee and some of your larger communities also have vacancies and are not able to find people fill those right away," he said.
Amherst Firefighters Local 1764 released a statement on Facebook last Friday saying that the current staffing model leaves emergency vehicles inadequately staffed.
“The Amherst Fire Department routinely has a single firefighter on an engine due to the fact that we cross-staff our engines and our ambulances. With this model, only one truck may be staffed, leaving the other type of truck inadequately staffed,” the union statement read.
Stromgren said Amherst's revised budget for fiscal 2025 does include funding to fill the vacancies in the department, but reiterated that many communities are experiencing a shortage.
"We continue to look to the future to hopefully be able to raise minimum staffing, which puts more firefighters in the station, you know, at any given moment to handle our average call volume of EMS and fire calls," Stromgren said. "It's certainly the first thing we should address. We would fill all our vacancies. Unfortunately, there is a regional and really national shortage of paramedics and EMTs to fill these roles."
Stromgren added that the fire department does have a "robust" mutual aid system in place with neighboring town's fire departments when they are short handed like they were on July 1st for assistance. Besides this mutual aid system Stromgren said the Amherst Fire Department also claims they have been relying more on a student volunteer force from all three colleges, Hampshire, Amherst, and University of Massachusetts when the academic year is in session. When full-time crews are occupied with calls, the volunteers join the regulars with assisting calls on the UMass campus. However, the volunteers are limited to only responding to basic fire and first aid calls and very few of them receive EMT training.
Union leaders said in the statement they have brought their concerns to the town manager and town council many times to no avail. As of Wednesday, the cause of the fire on July 1st is still under investigation.
