The Haverhill Fire Department has seen its response times decrease amid a sharp increase in headcount growth over the last six months.
The City Council on Tuesday heard from Fire Chief Robert M. O’Brien, who said the work has been more than a year in the making. O’Brien, addressing the body at the request of Councilors Ralph T. Basiliere and Melissa J. Lewandowski, said the department began an interview process in July of 2023 for filling out a reserve list, which is used to pull individuals into the ranks “as-needed.”
“Prior to 2023, we had depleted that list. So, in July 2023 we created a 15-person reserve list at that time. On Sept. 15, 2023, we were awarded a $4.1 million SAFER grant to increase our staffing levels,” he told councilors.
As WHAV reported last fall, the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant through the Federal Emergency Management Agency provides the city $4 million to hire an additional 16 firefighters over the next three years.
On Jan. 7, the department hired two recruits ahead of a slew of new hires over the next eight months. The department has since hired an additional 24 firefighters, some with grant funding and some to fill gaps left by retirements. The grant enabled the department to place a second ladder into service in the Bradford station.
The chief said, “We’ve never been more efficient in terms of onboarding new employees this year and matching them with the fire academy.”
O’Brien praised his on-duty crews and his day staff for their efforts in securing the grant and onboarding new staff.
Basiliere said he was pleased with the increase in manpower, which allows the department to employ a tactic colloquially referred to as “hitting it hard from the yard,” during recent fires on Blaisdell Street and Grove Street, which was credited with saving the home on Grove Street.
Previously, a typical pump carrier had three firefighters on board. With the increase in staff, a fourth firefighter is able to assist. “What the fourth firefighter gave us was the ability to have the officer in addition to properly sizing up the building, which is getting a proper read on what they’re facing, they pull a line. In the cases you and I just discussed, they were hitting the fire from the outside. A lot of our operations we fight the fire from the interior out, and that’s how aggressive we are going in there,” he said.
O’Brien said the Blaisdell Street fire had an approximately two-minute response time from High Street and the Grove Street fire had an approximately two-and-a-half-minute response time.
“Both of those, although the damage from the outside looked extreme and any fire was extreme, what was not lost on any of the firefighters there was how limited the fire was inside, held to the front room where the fire of origin started. And that has a great deal with how fast they hit the fire from outside and it gave the interior crew quicker access to that fire room,” he said. “Having the fourth firefighter on that truck makes a huge difference, particularly in that area.”
Lewandowski called the new staffing capacity “wonderful news.”
In other Council news, members voted to accept, as WHAV reported last month, a $1,000 gift card for sporting equipment from Wellpoint for the Haverhill Recreation Department.