Juneau has seen two destructive residential fires in the Mendenhall Valley in the course of three days. A Saturday blaze resulted in a man’s death, with another person suffering severe injuries.
The strain on local first responders prompted Cheyenne Sanchez, a member of Juneau’s firefighter union, to speak out about staff shortages at Monday night’s Juneau Assembly meeting.
“We the Juneau career firefighters, in light of this weekend’s tragic house fire, have reflected a lot upon our current staffing shortage and the declining number of responders to aid in the community during the crisis,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez is with the local chapter of the International Association of Fire Fighters and works for Capital City Fire/Rescue. He pointed to four vacancies in the department and wages that aren’t competitive enough to recruit new staff.
“When you know a normal firefighter is starting a new job in the fire service, and they go to search for a job, one of the common filters that they use is the wage scale,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday. “If we’re not even on the first or second page of a list of fire departments that are hiring … we’re losing those opportunities.”
And Sanchez said the lack of staff not only impacts his job, but concerns him as someone who lives in Juneau.
“I’m a member of this community. I live here,” Sanchez said. “I want happy, competent firefighters working in the town I live in.”
Fire Chief Rich Etheridge said the staffing shortages mean fewer people can respond to fires.
“They work to the point of exhaustion, and then they go get cleaned up and get ready for the next calls,” he said.
Etheridge said wages are negotiated every three years between city management and the firefighter’s union. Currently, starting wages are between $18.30 and $22.50 an hour, with an expectation to work 56 hours a week.
“We have a minimum staffing every day, and we’ve been able to meet minimum staffing,” he said. “But it usually does take mandatory overtime, where people don’t have a choice whether they want to work it or not.”
He said one barrier to hiring is certifications, so the department plans to offer more training opportunities to certify new hires in emergency medicine and firefighting — and eliminate prerequisites.
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