CAPE MAY – Cape May Fire Chief Alexander Coulter used the March 5 Cape May City Council meeting to make his case for additional personnel in the career department.
Coulter said the number of firefighters, 17 career firefighters, including the chief and deputy chief, fails to meet national standards. An agreement in 2016 to gradually raise the department’s staffing level has not materialized. “We need to stick to the deal we made,” Coulter said.
Currently, the department staffs its three shifts with five personnel per shift. Standards call for at least 15 firefighters to respond to a fire call at a typical Cape May wood-frame structure. Coulter said the department relies on mutual aid for additional assistance, especially from the neighboring Borough of West Cape May and the Coast Guard base.
The picture Coulter painted was one in which mutual aid is often not a solution. Many of the departments that respond to Cape May are volunteer departments where travel time and availability can negatively impact the ability to turn out to an incident in the city within acceptable response times.
“What you really have to rely on are the people in the firehouse when the call comes in,” Coulter said. He added that there are times when the ladder truck cannot respond because the department cannot staff it properly. “That’s a million-dollar piece of equipment we have to leave in the firehouse,” he added.
What Coulter is asking for is an additional position for each of the three shifts. His ultimate goal is eight per shift, but he expects it will take a few years to get to that level. He would like to move from five to six per shift in the 2019 budget.
Recently, the city manager presented his 2019 budget, which did not include additional personnel for the fire department. That budget calls for just under a one-cent increase in the local purpose tax rate.
Coulter told the council that the department had 2,289 calls in 2018. “That was about half fire and half EMS (emergency medical services),” he said.
Beginning in August 2018, when a fire response was significantly undermanned, Coulter began a process of municipal recalls of off-duty personnel when the on-duty staff must respond to an incident. “We have had 32 municipal recalls in five months,” Coulter said.
Coulter, who began his career as a volunteer firefighter in West Cape May, said the crisis in volunteer departments is forcing a reevaluation of the city’s needs. Many volunteer departments do not have enough fully-qualified personnel.
He said that in Cape May City he had three air-pack qualified volunteers. “That is just not going to help,” he said.
Council did not formally introduce the budget and must do so soon to meet the state deadline for enacting a municipal budget.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.
Villas – Don't kid yourself. Those "Nobel" prize people are as political as you can get. Wise up!
