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Virgin Islands Fire and EMS tells legislature staffing, fleet and FEMA rebuilding remain constrained as billing work begins
Summary
Director Antonio Stevens told the Legislature—s committee that VIFEMS employs 291 people and has added ambulances and other equipment but still lacks sufficient paramedics and faces multi-year FEMA delays on station rebuilds; the agency expects to start electronic ambulance billing soon and projects $2.5M—$3M in annual collections.
Antonio Stevens, director of the Virgin Islands Fire and Emergency Medical Service, told the Legislature—s Committee on Homeland Security, Justice and Public Safety on Feb. 13 that the agency has expanded its emergency response capacity but still faces deep staffing and facility gaps.
"BIFEMS currently employs 291 personnel," Stevens said in opening testimony, while outlining continuing shortages in suppression and paramedic staffing. He told senators the agency has increased its EMT ranks since integration, and "we recently resulted in 2 new paramedic hires on the island of Saint Croix," but said the territory still needs more paramedics to meet ideal staffing levels.
The committee heard details on equipment and facilities: Stevens said Marine 1 entered service in 2025 and that seven new ambulances were commissioned in early 2026, distributed across St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John. He said a construction manager-at-risk has been selected for a territorial bundle of fire-station projects funded through FEMA but that the federal process has delayed firm start dates; he estimated the work might begin within about five years if FEMA authorizations proceed.
Stevens and his executive team described steps taken since Act 85-45 created the merged agency, including establishing an in-house EMT training program, securing a certificate of need to run territorial ambulance services and obtaining a DEA registry to manage controlled medications. The department also won a lockbox and an employer identification number to support electronic billing.
Larry Levin Jr., assistant director for EMS, told the committee the agency expects that when its in-house billing system goes live it could recover "possibly between 2.5 to $3,000,000 a year" in revenue. Stevens said the team recently received a lockbox approval and is targeting late February or early March for billing to begin, subject to operational checks and coordination with the Department of Finance and a billing vendor (ZOLL Digitech).
Senators questioned hiring and retention: Stevens said a fully staffed territory would need roughly 16 paramedics; he gave varying counts during questioning (describing 3 paramedics on St. Croix and 7 on St. Thomas in one exchange and a later total of 10 paramedics). He cited national shortages and pay competitiveness as recruitment obstacles and said the agency intends to emphasize internal advancement and training so firefighters can qualify as EMTs and paramedics.
On enforcement and prevention, chiefs said inspectors perform routine business inspections and the department follows NFPA codes; the director said fines are used when repeated noncompliance occurs and that the agency is restoring and reprinting citation booklets for local enforcement.
The director described damage-mitigation and station-repair programs funded through disaster recovery grants and FEMA but warned that the timeline is controlled by federal review and environmental permits (including CZM), which have required design changes at sites such as the Robert O'Connor station. On infrastructure vulnerabilities, he told senators some stations would have to be closed in the event of higher-category storms because structures cannot withstand the worst projected weather until repair or reconstruction is complete.
During questioning senators raised operational priorities including firefighter personal protective equipment replacement, bay-door reliability, mechanics training, hydrant access near the Bovoni landfill and a contingency plan for landfill fires. Stevens said some work (SCBA purchases, ambulances, all-terrain response vehicles) has been done through grants and that the agency is pursuing additional grant opportunities for bunker gear and staffing, while noting the risk of relying on temporary grant funds for ongoing payroll.
The committee requested follow-up documents, including a breakdown of vacancies by suppression and EMS, overtime figures, retirement counts for recent years, detailed timelines for the FEMA station bundle, and the agency—s plan for distributing ambulance-billing revenue. Stevens said he would provide those items at a subsequent appearance.
The committee recessed after the VIFEMS update to take up other business.
