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Santa Fe Fire Department seeks to sustain retention, add minimum staffing as calls rise
Summary
Fire officials told the Finance Committee they used vacancy savings to add units and staffing, highlighted a large overtime line driven by holidays and event coverage, and flagged an upcoming wave of retirements and facility needs including station expansion and generators.
Santa Fe’s Fire Department presented a budget and operations update to the Finance Committee on April 29, reporting steps to strengthen staffing and training while flagging multi‑year risks including a wave of retirements and the need for expanded facility capacity.
Fire leaders said the department has kept vacancy levels low and used that to add minimum staffing for certain apparatus without a net budget increase. The department also plans to put an extra person at the airport and to staff another ambulance (Medic 44) full time, moves the chief said would ease sustained high call volumes.
“We put a lot of money into these people,” the chief said, describing recent class‑and‑comp raises that helped retention. The department noted it…
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