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Ashland Fire to ‘upstaff’ By Morgan Rothborne Jul 25, 2022 12:15 AM A A Ashland Fire and Rescue gets $35,000 grant, allowing more overtime during fire season Ashland Fire and Rescue staff are all firefighters and paramedics. [Mail Tribune/file photo] Ashland Fire and Rescue will have added capacity this summer — not through new hires, but through state money expanding overtime hours for existing staff, a move called “upstaffing” The Oregon Fire Marshall’s office — through support from Senate Bill 762 — gave a $35,000 grant to Ashland Fire and Rescue. The money will enable the department to add from one to four extra firefighters, depending on need, culminating in up to two extra engines for fire response and added flexibility when fire calls and medical calls come in at once. “In part, it’s upstaffing for the fire season. In part, it’s to add capacity to our medical calls,” Ashland Wildfire Division Chief Chris Chambers said. Ashland Fire and Rescue staff are all firefighters and paramedics, and they respond to all Ashland 911 calls, be it a column of smoke or shortness of breath. Ashland Fire and Rescue Capt. Jeff Beck said he and the rest of the department often are juggling multiple calls, sometimes with unfortunate consequences if they’re short-staffed, or the patient needed to be transported to a Medford hospital. Beck said he has responded to many fire calls from hospitals. “If it’s just two guys, you’re bombing down I-5. I’ve either missed a lot of fires or gotten there just in time to get in on the fight because of (medical calls),” he said. In their capacity as paramedics, they’re required to stay with a patient until a nurse becomes available, Beck said. This can become crippling at times. If they’ve brought in someone having a panic attack, Beck said, and firefighters get a fire call, they are sometimes trapped waiting at the hospital for as long as half an hour. Upstaffing could make it easier for Ashland’s firefighters to balance their dueling priorities. The system works primarily on a volunteer basis. The department needs more hands, and they send out a call asking firefighters to come in and work overtime. “We’ll try to accommodate people as we can. We hope people will take the overtime bonus and come in,” Chambers said. The department always has at least eight, but up to 10, firefighters available to answer calls, working in shifts of 48 to 96 straight hours, then four days off. Despite a prohibition on overtime from Ashland’s budget shortfall, the fire department always has been able to enlarge its overtime budget if the number of staff falls below eight. “I can tell you, there’s mixed feelings,” Beck said of the increased overtime. The overtime system is voluntary until the need is urgent and no one has raised a hand, he said. Then the department can “force-hire,” or demand a firefighter come in to work overtime. It’s built into all their contracts, Beck said. The department keeps a list of who has voluntarily worked overtime. Once the shift is done, the volunteer goes to the bottom of the list. When they need to force-hire, whoever is at the top of the list gets the call, if they’re qualified. If the need is for a captain, an entry-level firefighter would be skipped in favor of the next captain on the list. “Last year, due to COVID-19, I got force-called more between July and November than in my entire career,” Beck said. While he described himself as not too pleased with that situation, he also took on voluntary overtime during that period, and he did it for his fellow captain. “She’s like my little sister; her husband is a firefighter too, and they have little kids. I took some so she wouldn’t get it,” Beck said. He said the fire department is the ultimate team. He tells his crews their wives and children are their first family, but the fire family always comes second. This feeling helps inspire firefighters to volunteer for overtime. Chambers said the department has already upstaffed twice, as recently as Thursday. The grant money will carry the fire department only to Sept. 30. For the long term, department administrators are working with Ashland City Council and the city manager to find money for more staff in the next biennium budget. Reach Mail Tribune reporter Morgan Rothborne at [email protected] or 541-776-4487. Follow her on Twitter @MRothborne.