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REQUEST FOR COUNCIL ACTION Date: 8/5/2024 Item No.: 7.b. Department Approval City Manager Approval Item Description: Fire Department Staffing Study- Consultant Deliverables 1 2 Background th 3 On May 20, 2024 the Fire Department presented to the City Council data and information 4 demonstrating the current call volume stress to the fire and EMS response capabilities of the 5 department. The call volume growth is attributed to an increase in both Fire and EMS call response. The 6 ’s current on-duty staffing model is responding to more calls per firefighter on-duty and staffed 7 response unit, resulting in Roseville falling behind many of our peers of like size and services. Other 8 agencies around the metro area are or have already transitioned to a full-time model as well as investing 9 significantly in their staffing model. When calls per on-duty firefighter and emergency calls per on-duty 10 staffed response unit are assessed, Roseville is falling significantly behind. As an example, in 2023, the 11 Roseville Fire Department averaged 2,302 emergency calls per staffed response unit. This number was 12 higher than six other peer agencies: Maplewood (1993 calls), Richfield (1663 calls), Eagan (1661 calls), 13 Edina (1444 calls), Oakdale (1262 calls), and South Metro (1553 calls). In 2018, utilizing call volume and 14 staffed number of units (2), Roseville Fire averaged 2,484 calls per staffed unit. We are currently closer 15 to our 2018 existence than our 2023 peers as it pertains to calls per staffed unit. 16 17 One of the most significant areas for concern with available staffing and response is emergency call 18 overlap. In 2023, we experienced 210 instances in which the fire department was unable to provide 19 adequate resources for the emergency call requested. Of our 6,907 total calls for service, nearly 25% 20(1,575 calls) were multi-unit responses (an example would be a fire alarm which requires an engine and 21 a medic response vehicle, a car accident which requires the same, or a critical EMS call which requires 22 two medic response vehicles), requiring at least two companies to respond to mitigate the emergency. In 23 2023, over 58% of our total call volume were second, third, fourth, and even fifth overlapping calls (4,034 24 emergency calls that were overlapping). A total of 2,873 calls were single emergency calls without 25 overlap of another emergency call. As a reminder, even one emergency call may include two or even all 26 three of our on-duty resources, so a second or third overlapping call may completely deplete available 27 response capability in the community. 28 29 The increased call volume causing emergency call overlap has impacted response times. On-duty crews 30 are having to rush to clear from an emergency scene to respond to another versus responding from a 31 centralized location, and availability, of our fire station. When reviewing both emergent and non- 32 emergent response we have seen an increase in overall response time of the department to 8 minutes th 33 and 31 seconds (90 percentile). This also includes incidents where we are delayed in responding due 34 to other incidents. This delay and inability to respond creates scenarios where we are responding to all 35 types of emergencies, including building fires with staffing below a safe level to mitigate an incident. 36 Page 1 of 3 Qbhf!:1!pg!2:4