COVER FEATURE
by B.C. Kowalski
Fire shortage As the numbers of calls increase, the numbers of firefighters have stayed the same since 1970. A new plan seeks to change that.
Photo courtesy Ethan Bares
On the chilly evening of Nov. 11, a garage fire ignited and started burning in the 400 block of 11th Street. Firefighters responded to the call as they always do, thinking about the safety of others before themselves. The timing of the call was unfortunate, although it’s becoming a scenario all too common: Two of the three ambulances from Station No. 1 on the city’s east side were out on fire calls, along with their requisite staff, leaving only an engine company of two to respond to the call. If that seems fewer than ideal, well, it was. The two firefighters — one an engineer the other a lieutenant — hopped onto the fire engine and sped to the call. Other engines and ambulances arrived later. Firefighters on ambulance calls must finish their calls before they can respond to a fire. They
don’t abbreviate care for their patients, a fire official told City Pages. On scene, the garage was blazing and waiting for backup wasn’t an option if they wanted to keep the fire from spreading from the garage to the house, and perhaps to other houses in the neighborhood. The lieutenant grabbed the 2 ½” hose meant to be held by several people, straddled it on the ground to keep it steady, and trained it on the fire. The city’s videographer, Ethan Bares, happened to be doing a ridealong that evening and recorded stunning photos and video of the bravery. The public can see firsthand the work firefighters do on a regular basis. It also offered the perfect case study to demonstrate something Wausau Fire Chief Robert Barteck says has
become a growing problem. The number of calls for service has steadily risen over the years. The number of firefighters/ parademics has not. City Pages analyzed fire calls doing back nearly two decades, and confirmed Barteck’s argument. The number of calls the department has responded to since 2002 has doubled, while the number of firefighters has roughly stayed the same. In fact, Barteck argues, some positions gave way to administration roles. That leaves even fewer boots on the ground, so to speak. Barteck is asking for nine new firefighters for the department. It’s a big ask, but it’s also coming from a department that hasn’t seen a staffing increase since 1970, according to research Barteck put together. But all that is in the backdrop of a larger problem — the challenge of recruiting public safety workers. And, frankly, all workers. As many point out the new The Great Resignation trend, public workers are often some of the hardest to recruit. Following Act 10, the great pay/benefits public worker jobs often offered are gone; with them, one of the best recruitment tools for jobs that are dangerous and/or come with public scrutiny. Generally, incentives align around dangerous jobs; now they’re aligned toward safer private sector jobs. If it hasn’t yet, it should leave you wondering what the future of public safety is going to look like.
Recruiting
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The Wausau Fire Department had five retirements and four resignations in 2021. The department until very recently had five open positions to fill. The Police and Fire Commission last week finally voted to accept the recruits for those positions. That exhausts the list of available firefighters. Barteck said when he was entering the fire service 30 years ago, he was competing with hundreds of other potential firefighters. Waiting lists of qualified applicants were long, so there was always someone to pull from. Those days are over. The recent recruits exhausted the department’s hiring list. They’ll have to go find more. Where are they going? Barteck says two of the four resignations went to the private sector. Both of them went to helicopter ambulance services. The other two left to move closer to home. Barteck says the department needs to think much differently about recruitment than it has in the past. It helps that Wausau is a department of choice. In a meeting of the police and fire commission this year in which commissioners were asking firefighters what they wanted to see in a new chief, several mentioned either specifically choosing Wausau for its reputation and/or selecting Wausau over other departments. That was largely due to the efforts of now-retired chief Tracey Kujawa. Firefighters in the meeting said they wanted to see more of her style of leadership. Barteck says Kujawa really started turning things around at the Wausau Fire Department, including major infrastructure improvements and the development of a strategic plan. Barteck hopes to continue that work, and this initiative to bring more firefighters on board is a step toward that goal. “We need to rebrand ourselves,” Barteck told City Pages from his office at Station No. 1. “We’re really the all-hazard response team in the community. When someone calls for help, we will do what we need to in order to meet the need.” Highlighting that work is an important part of the recruitment strategy. The city videographer, Bares, plays a big role CiTY PAGES
December 2-9, 2021
