KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In November, KSHB 41 News took a look at low staffing and recruitment numbers within the Kansas City Fire Department, and how it's working to get more people on the job.
Almost a month later, the departments said it's still working to recruit within its 90 day rolling recruiting strategy.
KCFD Capt. Donnell Roberts, the diversity and recruitment for KCFD, said testing for 2022 ended the first week of December.
The department recently graduated 29 Cadets from the academy, which will help fill a few gaps for low staffing shortages, according to KCFD Chief Donna Lake.
According to firefighters already on the job, the department is making sure to keep up with response times and not overwork firefighters.
“They’re just continuing to answer the call," Roberts said. "So the citizens of Kansas City are still protected the same, and it’s just more wear and tear on our personnel."
Lake weighed in on how many positions the department still needs to fill.
“We are down roughly 120 positions across the department,” Lake said.
She also said the department is now finding other ways to fill in the gap.
“For us we have minimum staffing, that equates to having to fill those positions on overtime,” she said.
Still, Roberts said the department is making sure employees have time to rest.
“They do have vacation days and sick time available — where if they do need those particular days off, they do have the opportunity to take off if they need,” Roberts said.
Despite a heavy load, KCFD is making sure calls for help are met between both fire and EMS.
“One of the things that our crew members will do, is they will swap out from the fire truck over to the ambulance, so that it gives the paramedic or the EMT some downtime," Lake said.
According to Lake, over the last year, KCFD has also been “pairing off” with other services for non-emergency transfers to reduce the call volume for EMS within the department.
“That is someone who has been in the hospital, they are ready to be released and they are going back to another care source" Lake said. “And so those transfers from facilities to other facilities, when it’s non-emergency, in some cases they do need a stretcher, they do need some kind of monitoring as they are going, but there are a lot of other services that can provide that."
—
