Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 4/2/2015
EAST?LONGMEADOW – The Fire Department’s request for one additional call firefighter and expanded coverage times is officially a part of the fiscal year 2016 (FY16) budget, which will be voted on by residents during the Annual Town Meeting.
Fire Chief Paul Morrissette told Reminder Publications the Board of Selectmen approved of his supplemental budget for the Fire Department during its March 17 meeting. The Appropriations Committee also voted to recommend Morrissette’s departmental budget.
The overall increase for the extended firefighter coverage would be $65,405 plus an estimated cost of $4,326 to $10,802 for a new firefighter’s employee benefits. The overall increase is about nice percent from the current fiscal year with an average cost of $12 to homeowners.
Morrissette said the Fire Department recently posted a job advertisement for call firefighters. The department is looking to hire three to four new call firefighters.
He added that career firefighters are full-time, while call firefighters are part-time and get paid as they respond.
The posting calls for applicants to be at least 19 years old, live within one mile of the town line, and to not use tobacco products. Selected applicants must pass a physical examination and the Massachusetts Criminal Offender Record Information report prior to training.
Any selected applicants would then begin recruit training administered by the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy. Classes typically take six months to complete and are scheduled for two evenings a week and several Saturdays in a given month.
The application deadline is April 24 by 1 p.m. and interviews will be conducted the week of April 27.
“We do an in-house interview,” Morrissette explained. “They submit their application and we filter through the applications. We put together a hiring committee together of members of the department.”
Currently the Fire Department consists of 25 call firefighters, including three new probationary call firefighters who recently were awarded their certifications.
The three new call firefighters are David Terrell, Michael Sedlak, and Kevin Relihan, Morrissette noted.
“They actually graduated in December and they spent the last three months in-house, fine tuning their skills based on East Longmeadow procedures and policies,” Morrissette said. “It gave them an opportunity to get to know the firefighters in the department.”
The department is seeking additional call firefighters because several people have left the position, he added. The Fire Department usually maintains 25 to 30 call firefighters and adds three to four call firefighters per year.
“We can’t run with just career [firefighters]; we can’t run with just call firefighters,” Morrissette said. “You’ve got to have a happy mix and we’ve got to make sure we have the call firefighters trained and ready to go when we need them.”
Relihan, a Springfield EMT, told Reminder Publications he is looking to become a career firefighter in the future.
“[I’m looking forward to] getting more experience and responding to calls,” he added.