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Fire chief says OSHA-required live-burn training and injuries are driving overtime increase
Summary
Bristol's fire chief told the Board of Finance that missed annual live-burn training and multi-year medical leaves pushed projected overtime higher; the department cited a $160,000 training cost that requires overtime and a run-rate that could total about $2 million.
Chief Hart told the Board of Finance the department must resume annual live-burn training to comply with OSHA-related requirements, and that training requires overtime because on-duty crews must remain available for emergency response. "OSHA mandates that we do live burns for all our members... so we have to hire overtime" he said.
Board members pressed for detail after staff presented an overtime forecast materially higher than last year's adopted budget. Finance worksheets showed a prior budgeted overtime amount of about $1.75 million, historical run rates near $2.1 million and a training add-on of $160,000 that together produce a forecast higher than this year's original budget.
Members asked whether the rise was driven by staffing reductions, long-term injuries or accounting choices. The chief said recent long-term medical leaves and retirements inflated last year's run rate and that the department uses a formula based on time-and-a-half pay, contractual raises, vacation and sick-time averages to project overtime.
Safety concerns surfaced when a board member asked whether the overtime pattern—where some firefighters occasionally work up to 36 hours in a rotation—creates risk. The chief said the department uses a rotating list and that "we haven't had an issue with that so far," while others noted that the practice is common but still a point of oversight.
The board asked staff for detailed backup spreadsheets to reconcile the budgeted figure with recent actuals and to identify where the overtime bucket can be pared back without reducing required training or compromising response capacity. No formal staffing change or funding decision was made; the item will be reviewed in the next meeting packet.
