West Palm Beach To Start 9 New Firefighters
The starting firefighters will be placed at Station 2, 4301 S. Dixie highway, which covers the very south end of the city, and Station 3, 5050 Broadway.
Station 1 and Station 5 are actually the busiest stations, and the grant that was received about a year and a half ago allowed for the department to increase staff at those two locations. In doing so, they noticed a favorable change in response times.
Fire Departments Decrease Response Times
The decision to start nine new firefighters comes in an effort to cut emergency response times at Stations 2 and 3. Firefighters will be able to respond on an average of three minutes sooner than before the nine new hires.
This change in staff will allow for firefighters to respond to more calls in their area, saving help from stations in other zones for the more extreme cases when backup is necessary. Before the hires, when calls came in, firefighters were responding from other zones, increasing the time for response
A grant funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency allowed them to bring the firefighters on.
As always, their main concern is the safety of the citizens, and bringing nine firefighters to the stations will allow for increased service.
