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Fort Lauderdale fire chief cites SAFER hires, warns of high-rise response gaps and rising apparatus costs
Summary
Fire Chief Farjeet Golds told the Budget Advisory Board the department recently gained 28 firefighters through a SAFER grant but still faces training, turnout and equipment-cost pressures tied to rapid downtown high-rise growth and upcoming funding expirations.
Farjeet Golds, Fire Chief for the City of Fort Lauderdale, told the Budget Advisory Board on Dec. 19 that a recent Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant will add 28 firefighters but that the department still faces major training and equipment challenges as downtown adds thousands of residential units.
Golds said the department’s on-scene emergency response times are “within 6 to 10 minutes,” and that return of spontaneous circulation for cardiac patients is in the high 20 percent range, near the national average. He described the SAFER grant hires as “incredibly, incredibly important,” but warned the grant-funded positions expire in three years and will require the city to assume their cost if staffing is to…
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