The fire department is staffed with three full-time personnel, Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm. This staffing is complimented with paid on-call personnel. Our on-call staffing level is currently eighteen. On-call personnel carry pagers which are activated through our County’s Central Dispatch Center. Personnel are paid an hourly wage when they respond to calls and for training participation. Currently On-call Personnel are paid the following wages; New hires are paid $12 per hour before certification, Certified Fire fighters are paid $13 per hour and Officers $14 per hour.
Full-time personnel include: a Fire Chief, and two state certified Fire Inspectors. Our Inspectors provide regular inspection and prevention services. The full-time personnel also respond outside of normal business hours. Our full-time staffing level is impacted by vacation and personal time off as well as times when these personnel may be attending training. Our goal is to have no less than two fully certified personnel available during the day for immediate response as there is often no on-call personnel available during normal business hours due to work schedules.
Firefighters must obtain the following minimum certifications:
- Firefighter Level II
- Hazardous Materials Response – Operations Level
- Medical First Responder
- Advanced Extrication
- Drivers Training
- Ice Rescue – Operations Level
- Incident Command System – IS-100, IS-200, IS-700, IS-800
Fire Officers must also obtain
- Fire Officer Certification – Level I, II, and III depending on rank.
- Incident Command System – IS-300 and/or IS-400 depending on rank.
Many or our personnel have obtained other non-required certifications. Our personnel are extremely proactive in seeking out and completing additional educational opportunities. These trainings require many hours of classroom and hands-on activities. In some cases, access to training has required personnel to travel outside of Michigan.
Some of these trainings include:
- Associate Degree in Applied Science
- Emergency Medical Technician
- Hazardous Materials Response – Technician Level
- Hazardous Materials Response – Specialist Level
- Ice Rescue – Technician Level
- Fire Officer I, II and III
- Certified Instructor in a variety of curriculum.
- Disaster Preparedness and Response.
- Rescue Boat/Water Rescue Technician
- Terrorism Response – Explosives, Biological, Radiological and Chemical.
- National Fire Academy
- Oakland Community College CREST Center – Live fire training.