Escambia County is working on a brown-out plan for its fire department because of staffing shortages as the county grapples with firefighters leaving, COVID-19 and the outage of the Pensacola Bay Bridge.
Interim Public Safety Director Eric Gilmore told county commissioners Thursday morning that the draft plan is a hail Mary plan to continue operating if the county were to go below minimum staffing levels. We ve got processes in place to keep us from getting there, Gilmore said.
The draft plan spells out the process Escambia County Fire Rescue would use if its staff falls below the minimum department-wide number of 47 firefighters on-duty during the week or 43 on-duty after hours or on the weekends.
March 5, 2021
The Escambia County Commission learned about a draft “brown out” plan Thursday that might temporarily close two fire stations due to reduced staffing, as two commissioners disagreed over low firefighter pay and the need for volunteers.
Escambia Fire Rescue operates 21 fire stations. Thirteen stations are staffed 24 hours a day with career, seven are volunteer only, and the Century fire station has a daytime career crew weekdays and volunteer staffing at other times.
If department-wide career firefighter staffing falls below 47 when Century’s crew is on duty, or 43 after hours and weekends, a firehouse will brown out shut down with an remaining crew members reassigned to other stations. The draft plan calls for the Warrington station to be the first to brown out, followed by Bellview if necessary.
December 24, 2020
First responders in Escambia County are finally “playing offense” in the fight against COVID-19 after the county received its first Moderna vaccine shipment.
Interim Public Safety Director Eric Gilmore was the first employee to receive the Moderna vaccine Wednesday morning.
“This is the first time that we can go on the offensive. We’ve been playing defense since March, and now we have a tool in our toolbox to go on the offensive, which is a great feeling,” Gilmore said. Personally, getting vaccinated gives me a little more confidence. I will be a little more at ease going into places, and I think most of the first responders here today feel that way, and that’s why they are here.”