Fire commissioner asks council to support hiring, training and burn-tower repairs ahead of FY26 goals

Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Jeffrey Thompson told City Council the departmentseeks to expand training and hiring in fiscal 2026, including graduating up to 32 participants from a technical rescue course, hiring 200 emergency medical services providers and launching an internal EMT-to-paramedic upscaling program to boost frontline capacity.

Thompson said those steps are intended to "help us, in our current operations as well as to prepare us for 02/1926," and to support recruitment efforts and academy throughput.

The department also told council that its on-campus burn tower at the Philadelphia Fire Academy is unsafe and unavailable for cadet live-burn training. Thompson said the masonry structure has deteriorated from heat and water and that "we cannot use our burn tower currently because it is unsafe." He said the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) requires periodic inspections of burn towers and that the department's most recent comprehensive inspection (February 2023) identified needed repairs.

Because the tower is out of service, the department has been using Bucks Countys training facility for live-burn drills. Deputy Commissioner Martin McCall told council the city pays Bucks County $30,000 per cadet class to use that facility. "We are paying Bucks County $30,000 for the use of their facility," McCall said. Thompson agreed to provide council with the departments detailed repair list and the cost comparison between outsourcing training and repairing the burn tower.

On staffing, Deputy Commissioner McCall said the department currently has "roughly 212 paramedics" on its rolls and that the department is pursuing hiring targets aggressively, including multiple EMT and paramedic classes this year. McCall described an availability assumption the department uses when planning shifts: a roughly 30% replacement factor for absences, and said the department is relying on overtime and canvassing off-duty members when gaps arise. Thompson and McCall said the department is reopening certification lists and running multiple training classes to reach the 200-EMS hire goal for FY26.

Thompson also described the SAFER grant that enabled the department to reopen three companies and said the grants performance period extends into 2027; the department said it will seek general-fund support to sustain units after the grant expires.

On clinical capabilities, council and department staff discussed a proposed whole-blood program to carry blood on medic units for trauma care. McCall said the program team has worked on implementation since 2023 but that wide deployment is being timed to avoid interfering with unit availability while the city addresses chronic "wall time" and instances when medic units are delayed at hospitals.

The department told council it will bring detailed budget requests and cost estimates to justify the upscaling program, academy repairs and the planned recruitment push.

Ending

Thompson and his executive team said they welcome follow-up questions and will provide the burn-tower repair list and the Bucks County invoicing details to the chair. Council members repeatedly urged faster training capacity and asked the department to return with cost estimates and timelines as the FY26 budget process proceeds.