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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 remain at the new level.
The chief outlined sharp increases in vehicle and equipment costs: engines that once cost roughly $500,000–$600,000 are now about $1.1 million, and ladder trucks that once ran about $1 million have reached roughly $2.4 million. He said procurement lead times have lengthened — new fire apparatus can take 24–36 months to deliver — and that building a new fire station can take several years.
Golds emphasized how the city’s changing building stock affects operations: he said more than 60 commercial structures in the downtown corridor are “under construction, approved or in review,” yielding an estimated 21,000 residential units coming online in the downtown quadrant in the next few years and that 21 of those towers exceed 40 stories. He said taller buildings change the department’s response profile from horizontal to “vertical response,” and that reaching patients on upper floors adds minutes to on-scene time, requires specialized training and places additional stress on equipment and crews.
The chief told the board the department also faces a wave of retirements. He said over the next five years more than 50 senior-ranked firefighters are expected to leave, raising the need for expanded training capacity and for overtime to cover service while personnel attend specialized, low-frequency/high-risk drills (mass-casualty, high-rise fire, large-scale evacuations).
The department’s capital work includes planned new stations; Golds said one forthcoming station is roughly 20–24 months from occupancy and would require roughly 15 additional personnel to staff it. The board was also told last night at a City Commission work session that Station 13 construction faces about a $4 million shortfall on the original bond allocation; staff cited increased construction costs since January 2024 as one driver of the overage.
Golds concluded by asking the board to consider long-term funding support for personnel, stations and equipment so the department can keep pace with population and building growth.
The board did not take formal action on the chief’s presentation; members asked clarifying questions about training, recruitment and whether tourism or special-event fees could be used to recover public-safety overtime.
