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Fire chief cites SAFER-funded staffing gains while urging state help on freeway embankment fires
Summary
Fresno Fire Chief Billy Alcorn told council that FY26 proposes $132 million for the department including ongoing SAFER-funded positions now on the general fund; council and the mayor pressed Caltrans reimbursement and delegated maintenance to reduce repeated embankment fires.
Fire Chief Billy Alcorn presented the Fire Department's FY26 request — roughly $132 million — to the City Council, saying the budget preserves 428 department positions, covers contractual obligations and maintains four-person staffing on engine companies.
Chief Alcorn thanked the council for absorbing 42 SAFER grant positions into the general fund and described operational increases tied to contract dispatch costs, equipment replacement and utilities. The department reported nearly 950 fire-recruit applicants and described outreach and recruitment work with school districts and community groups.
Council members pressed the chief and the mayor about repeated vegetation and encampment fires on state-owned freeway embankments. Chief Alcorn and the mayor said Fresno firefighters respond regularly to tens to hundreds of freeway fires each year — the department gave a figure of 509 freeway fires year to date in one exchange — and said the state provides little to no reimbursement. The mayor said the city had sought a delegated maintenance agreement with Caltrans and would consider legal remedies and legislative advocacy if the state does not share the cost or authority to remove encampments.
Council members also discussed ARFF staffing at Fresno Yosemite International Airport; the chief said the airport funds airport fire positions but that higher-seniority staffing inflates cost passed on to airlines and complicates adding a third body at the airport station. On SAFER grants, the chief described recent program changes and recommended applying again only if the city is prepared to absorb long-term costs.
Chief Alcorn answered questions about station projects (Station 12 groundbreaking), apparatus and lifesaving equipment; the department said it now fields 11 automated CPR (LUCAS) devices and that grant funding plus donations had helped acquire them. Council members asked for RFIs on settlement history, city reimbursement policies for firefighting on non-city property and details of the station construction schedule.
