Federal Grant Money Allows Two Sacramento Fire Companies To Hire More Fire Fighters, End Brownouts

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Two Sacramento fire departments have been awarded a multi-million dollar grant that will allow them to hire additional fire fighters and cut brownouts.
 
The Sacramento City Fire Department and Sacramento Metro Fire are the recipients of the grants.  And for the two cash-strapped fire departments, the $11 million in federal grant money goes a long way to improving safety. 

"We were shocked and overwhelmed we got the grant," said Sacramento City Fire Department Capt. Jonathan Burgess.

"This grant is going to save lives for the Sacramento area.  No doubt about it," said Sacramento Metro Fire Capt. Christian Pebbles.

The FEMA grant which was several years in the making, will put more firefighters on the front lines in Sacramento. 

Sac Metro will use $5.4 million to hire two dozen firefighters creating two new truck companies.

Sac City is getting $5.6 million.  The department will be able to end rotating brownouts to two companies with 27 new fire fighters.

Both departments say staffing at or near normal levels will improve response time and save lives.

Still, officials from both fire departments acknowledge that the money is far from a fix-all.  The budgets for both agencies are still in rough shape.

"We have this influx of money but it's not going to solve our problems.  Our financial problems are still in the toilet.  It's going to take some time to get out of this recession," said Capt. Pebbles.

Both departments are awaiting the arrival of the money.  Then they'll go through the process of hiring and then training the new firefighters hoping to have everybody ready to go by next fire season.

It could take around 180 days for the money to show up and there's a catch: None of the new firefighters can be laid off under the rules of the grant program.