JAMESTOWN N.Y. (WKBW) — The City of Jamestown Common Council is scheduled to vote Monday evening to hire more firefighters with $1.8 million in FEMA funds granted to the city in February 2023.
UPDATE: According to Lieutenant at Engine four Dan Balling the Jamestown common council tabled the vote on $1.8 million in FEMA funds granted to the city in February 2023. Yet the council voted in favor of hiring five firefighters to to fill current vacancies.
Jamestown has a total of four fire stations yet only three can be open at one time due to staffing.
“There’s no extra hands. If something were to go wrong if one of our firefighters were to go down there’s nobody outside to help,” Lieutenant at Engine four Dan Balling said.
He's worn his fight gear for going on 19 years and it all started with his dad.
“My dad was a volunteer firefighter growing up and watching my dad go out and help people intrigued me,” he said.
Balling stated he and his fellow firefighters could use some extra hands to keep the community safe.
“We’ve always had a station closed since 2002 due to a lack of staffing," Deputy Fire Chief Matthew Coon shared.
Coon said the wait for this kind of help has been a long time coming. Jamestown averages 8,000 calls a year and it's worrisome to have more calls than resources.
“ When we go to structure fire calls it does tie up all of our resources that are on duty,” Coon said.
Balling said being a firefighter comes with a family not just to other firefighters but to the community and he wants to do all they can to keep everyone safe.
