Columbia firefighters say engines are short-staffed. City says it’s too many sick days
Three Columbia Richland Fire Department engines were off-duty last Friday because the department did not have enough people to staff them. Thirteen other engines were reportedly operating with too few people, according to the Columbia Firefighters Association.
City officials say the problem is too many sick days, rather than the department having a significant number of vacancies.
The Columbia Fire Department had manpower to cover 23 absences Friday, but 34 people called out, either on vacation, sick leave or other leave, according to data provided by Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann’s office.
The number of absences caused three engines and a firefighter rehab unit to be taken off-duty Aug. 5, the city confirmed. The firefighters association published a Facebook post Friday saying, “Unfortunately today, the residents and guests of the City of Columbia and Richland County are at a disservice.”
The post listed Engine 8 on Atlas Road, Engine 9 on Devine Street and Engine 14 in Dentsville as well as a rehab vehicle as being off-duty Friday. That post had been shared 164 times as of Thursday afternoon.
The firefighters association did not respond to multiple attempts to be reached for further information.
When fully staffed, the fire department has 454 personnel operating 32 stations, according to the mayor’s office. The department is currently 88% staffed. With new hires starting in coming weeks, that proportion will rise to 92%, according to city data.
“Our fire department is always hiring and we are always looking to recruit new people,” Rickenmann said in a statement. “If the Columbia Firefighters Association wants to advocate to change or restrict the current leave policy, we will hear them out as long as they don’t make it harder to recruit talent in our city.”
Further data provided by Rickenmann’s office shows fire department staff took a combined 10,100 hours of leave in June, between annual vacation time and sick leave. Firefighters typically work in 24-hour shifts.
Fire Chief Aubrey Jenkins said he could not comment on the hours of leave because the fire department does not track that data by hour, and he also could not say if that figure was substantially higher than what is typical in a given month.
Jenkins did say the issue is not as cut-and-dried as there being too few people and too many sick days. Rather, he said, it’s a combination of a number of factors. Jenkins acknowledged that engines are taken off duty because of low staffing at least several times a month.
Engines are only taken off duty if they are not the only engine at a station, meaning full stations are never taken off duty, Jenkins said.
The department is currently 54 people short, he said. In addition to the vacancies, nine people are out on workers’ compensation, eight are out on family medical leave, and four are out on extended military leave. Still, the high degree of leave being taken has caused problems in the department.
“Certainly, if you’re riding short, that is a safety issue,” Jenkins said of engines being sent on duty with smaller teams. Typically, fire engines are operated by four-person teams. When the department can’t staff full teams, some engines are reduced to three people.
When asked if having too few people on a shift would make it harder to battle a significant fire, Jenkins side-stepped.
“One thing I don’t want anybody to do is sell our firefighters short,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins believes filling the 54 open positions will alleviate some of the problem, but hiring is also difficult. The starting salary at the Columbia Richland Fire Department for those without a college degree is $33,669, according to a recruitment flyer. For those with amasters degree, the figure rises only slightly to $35,942.
“Money is always going to be a contributing factor,” Jenkins said. He added Columbia is not the only area struggling to recruit and retain firefighters. The fact that the problem is widespread only makes hiring more difficult as departments compete for the same people, he said.
The department is working on ways to recruit more people, including creating a bridge program to move volunteer firefighters into full-time staff positions.
As far as sick leave, Jenkins said COVID-19 and other illnesses contribute to absences, and he does not question whether someone is truly sick or not.
One station is particular is driving the high sick-time figure, according to the mayor’s office.
At station 8 on Atlas Road, several employees have taken more than 250 hours of sick leave in the last calendar year, and one person has taken up to 600 hours of sick leave in the last year, according to the data.
That station was also investigated in 2021 for having a frat-house-like culture. That investigation found numerous policy violations, including conduct unbecoming of city employees, dereliction of duty, horseplay and unsafe activities, insubordination and more. The findings led to the firing of five people from station 8.
Jenkins said he did not believe the two issues were related, stressing that the personnel at station 8 should not be cast in a negative light.
“I don’t want to cloud this issue with that issue,” Jenkins said.
Engines being off-duty amid a high degree of leave is not a new problem for the department. The State last year reported on a similar concern that was partly attributed to a rise in COVID-19 cases.
