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 of larger surges of staff on scene. That gap, SEH warned, creates health‑and‑safety and operational risks for firefighters and for people inside burning structures.

Key findings and numbers cited by SEH: - The city employs 20 full‑time people (two administrative staff and 18 operational personnel) and maintains a three‑platoon schedule; minimum daily staffing is four per shift, with six assigned when available. - Last year’s call total was about 2,227; SEH said average annual call volume rose roughly 5.3% per year on average since 2013 (a non‑linear increase the consultants described as an accelerating trend). - Overlapping incidents rose notably between 2020 and 2021, increasing the frequency of times when no in‑house unit was available to answer a new call. - SEH’s tally of personnel on fire incidents over three years showed many responses with only two or three people assigned and only two incidents that had 13 personnel present; SEH contrasted that with the 17‑person initial response that NFPA 1710 recommends.

SEH’s recommendations presented to the council included near‑term and long‑term steps: capture complete dispatch and unit‑level time data from La Crosse County and Gundersen Tri‑State Ambulance, consider terminating the paid‑on‑call program and reallocating those funds toward full‑time staffing, raise the part‑time administrative assistant to full time to relieve chiefs of clerical work, and negotiate or update mutual‑aid/automatic‑aid agreements to improve ALS/transport response in the city’s higher‑demand zones. On a longer timetable SEH recommended acquiring property in the city’s southeast to station a second unit, adding a captain position to manage multiple companies, and hiring nine additional firefighters (three per shift) as part of a 15–20 year build‑out that could include three stations.

At the meeting SEH operational planner Chuck Leipzig said: "Staffing is a big part of that. We need staff in order to develop some of these plans and prevent some of the injuries and accidents that happen as part of emergency delivery." Leipzig also told aldermen that mutual aid can supplement a response but "you can't rely on them for staffing."

City and council comments focused on causes of rising calls and feasibility. Alder Dan Stevens noted recent population growth and new higher‑density housing as factors. Alder Mike Milkey asked if mutual aid counts toward NFPA staffing numbers; Leipzig replied that mutual aid can be relied upon for an automatic buildup but not for guaranteed staffing on every initial response. Chief Pete Floody described how often off‑duty full‑time staff return to answer calls and said the department is using refusals and triage agreements with ambulance partners to reduce unnecessary transports.

No formal council action was taken at the meeting on SEH’s recommendations; the presentation was an informational briefing to inform future budget and policy decisions.

Ending: SEH and city staff urged the council to prioritize staffing steps—capturing better data, reallocating paid‑on‑call funds to hire career personnel, and negotiating clearer agreements with ambulance providers—to reduce response times and improve firefighter safety as call volume continues to rise.