Bemidji Fire Chief Presents City Council with Possible Solutions to Staffing Issues

Bemidji Fire Chief Justin Sherwood stopped by the Bemidji City Council’s work session on Monday to discuss staffing issues that have plagued the Fire Department for many years.

Sherwood highlighted a number of factors that have deeply impacted how the department operates, saying in a memo to the council that the department has “experienced an increase in service calls and operational demands, placing additional strain on personnel and the organization.”

“In the fire service, we’re a multi-service tool, meaning we do a little bit of everything,” said Sherwood to the council during the work session. “If someone asks us to do one more thing, we’ll do it. But what you aren’t seeing is, is the stress and strain, those hidden dangers, those hidden costs. Why are we continuing to operate at this level when a small change, albeit expensive, can bring so much more value than a dollar amount on a piece of paper?”

Sherwood presented the council with three options for “plans of action” that Sherwood believes would be a great benefit to the department. The council was drawn to the option of applying for a Staffing For Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant worth close to $1.5 million to hire four full-time firefighters.

“The goal of the grant is indeed to get adequate staffing in an effort to meet the NFPA [National Fire Protection Agency] standard of placing four individuals on each responding vehicle,” Sherwood added. “For the last four years, we have operated under something called the 51% occupancy rule, where every vehicle out the door is occupied by 51% or more, meeting the standard. [The] purpose of tonight’s discussion and the SAFER grant is, is to provide adequate staffing on that first arriving engine.”

Although the council liked the idea of applying for the SAFER grant, there is no timetable on when the city can apply it due to the Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) placing a federal freeze on FEMA.