City Council Approves Acceptance of SAFER Grant Funds

We are happy to announce that last night the City Council voted 5-1 to accept funds through the SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) Grant, which will allow for additional Fire/EMS personnel in the City of Fairbanks. The resolution to accept grant funds was sponsored by Councilwoman Therrien.

The resolution to apply for the SAFER Grant was first introduced by Mayor Matherly at the March 19th, 2018 Council Meeting after several mutual aid agencies began to reduce their response to lower level Fairbanks Fire Department (FFD) calls. The call volume for FFD increased 26% between 2014 and 2017 with no correlating increase in manning. The decrease in mutual aid required the Fairbanks Emergency Communication Center (FECC) to place lower level calls for service in a queue until FFD personnel were available.

The acceptance of the SAFER grant will allow for four additional employees to be hired at the Fairbanks Fire Department and will increase the amount of time FFD ambulances are available.  We would like to thank all the Fire and FECC employees that have been working hard to manage the increase in calls and all the employees and residents that supported the process of obtaining the SAFER Grant.