Consultant: Onalaska Fire Department does not meet NFPA staffing targets; study recommends hiring and reallocation of paid-on-call funds

On March 17 the Onalaska Common Council heard a staffing and operations briefing from Short Elliott Hendrickson (SEH) that found the Onalaska Fire Department frequently responds with fewer personnel than national standards recommend and recommended several staffing and policy changes.

SEH analysts told the council the department logged about 2,227 calls in the most recent year reviewed and that call volume has increased substantially since 2013. The consultants said overlapping incidents—when crews are committed to one call while another arrives—nearly doubled from 2020 to 2021 and reduce the department’s ability to meet NFPA 1710 staffing benchmarks for initial structure‑fire response.

Why it matters: SEH said NFPA 1710’s initial‑attack build‑out for a working single‑family structure fire can require about 17 personnel (attack lines, search and rescue, water supply, rapid intervention and safety functions). The firm’s review found that, over a three‑year period, most fire responses in Onalaska involved two to six personnel and the department had only rare instances…