High Point fire station finds resources to reopen after closure

Yahoo

2 days ago

HIGH POINT, N.C. (WGHP) — A fire station in High Point was temporarily without a working engine or rescue unit on Friday morning.
The firefighter's union in High Point said staffing shortages were to blame, and in a release, they claim changes were only made after FOX8 started asking questions.
FOX8 learned both Engine 13 and Rescue 1 were out of service. Both are located at Station 13.
FOX8 stopped by Station 13 on Ambassador Court around 10 a.m. and got no response.
At that time, Engine 5, from another fire station, responded to a nearby call. Typically, that call would've been handled by Engine 13.
Around 1 p.m., the station was officially marked back in service.
IAFF Local 673 High Point Professional Firefighters Association President Robert Templeton said he heard from several firefighters about why the trucks were offline.
'So what we have learned today, due to our staffing levels being so low, whenever we have individuals calling out sick or vacations that come through, we're having to hire overtime to fill those spots,' Templeton said.
Templeton said scheduled training pulled even more crews from other stations, making things worse.
'Station 7 had a training that they were going to go to with Truck 7 and Engine 7, and then the rescue was actually taken out of service for a training class due to personnel. They called out sick … Even with the amount of people that we hired overtime, we still had to take Engine 13 out of service,' Templeton said.
Templeton said the turning point came once FOX8 showed up at the fire station.
'Luckily, someone notified the media that our trucks were out of service and we had an empty station. That prompted the on-duty battalion chief to notify admin. The fire chief was notified, and he suspended all training for the rest of the day, and the companies were asked to report back to their stations and backfill these companies that were missing,' Templeton said.
High Point Fire Chief Brian Evans said it wasn't a staffing crisis but a routine adjustment due to training and leave.
'I think there's a wrong narrative being pushed out right now. Station 13 is not closing due to staffing. We had training that was going on today. We also had some normal … members on leave, vacation … sick leave. So we did have a unit out of service … In that case, we kind of revert back to whatever our normal staffing levels are,' Evans said.
Evans acknowledged that the City of High Point Fire Department does not meet NFPA 1710, which is the national standard for staffing and deployment of fire service personnel. He said that's not new for the city, but he hopes they will be able to reach those staffing levels.
'We haven't met the national standard in 30 years. It's not a problem that happened overnight, and it's not going to be fixed overnight,' Evans said.
The release posted by the High Point Professional Firefighters Association listed these concerns:
• The HPFD is consistently understaffed.
• On Friday, the department had to rehire seven firefighters on overtime, but needed ten.
• There are no new firefighter positions included in the proposed fiscal year 2025/2026 city budget.
• fire department administration officials have repeatedly applied for a federal SAFER grant to hire 16 additional firefighters, despite claiming publicly that there is no staffing issue.
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