UPDATE (5:58 PM) -- The Cape Coral City Council voted to approve six new firefighters for Cape Coral at Monday night's meeting.
Original story below
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CAPE CORAL, Fla. -- The Cape Coral Fire Department said they need more firefighters on hand in order to respond to emergency calls without overworking their crews.
Monday night, they are asking for the city’s approval to add six firefighters to their station.
Fox 4 sat down with Chief Ryan Lamb on why this is a win-win for both the city and fire department. Chief Lamb said the fire department has a large response zone.
“We cover 122 miles through eleven stations,” said Chief Lamb.
On average, they have roughly 60 emergency calls a day. "It can be very damaging on our firefighters to respond to that many number of calls,” said Chief Lamb.
The department recently conducted a study to make sure they have enough firefighters in the streets to respond. Turns out, they need six more.
“While hiring the six with cost about $460,000 a year, it would save us about $540,000 a year,” said Chief Lamb.
He said it would be beneficial for both the city and the department. “It will help offset that overtime cost but it’s also good for our employees to make sure they are getting enough rest and not being overworked,” said Chief Lamb.
He said they spend about $1 million a year in overtime so the extra staffing should reduce that significantly.
Right now, the department has 183 firefighters and he said six more would be a tremendous help.
