NEW ALBANY, Ind. — They're who you call in an emergency. They're ready at a moments notice. Firefighter's jobs are already demanding, but get even harder when there aren't enough people for the task.
"If we don't have the extra personnel then we're calling in overtime," said New Albany Fire Chief Matthew Juliot, adding that overtime is something every department struggles with.
But now some new grant money could help alleviate that. New Albany just received $2.5 million in a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
"This grant is basically intended to help keep your staffing, increase your staffing, not just keep it at bare minimum but increase it," said Juliot.
It's called the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant—or SAFER. And Juliot says safety is top of mind.
"It's going to help the citizens in a way we have more personnel for their safety and we have more personnel for the firefighters safety," he said.
Right now the department has 77 firefighters.
"Hopefully we can bump that up to 80, high 80s, 90, I'm not sure what the budget will sustain," said Juliot.
The money will also help the department keep up with safety standards set by the National Fire Protection Association, which call for 4 men per truck.
"Right now we're only able to do that with two apparatuses," said Juliot.
But they plan to spend this money of the next three years to change that for good.
"With this money you can know that you have a cushion for the next year, so if you hire X amount of employees that it won't blow your budget for the next year, and then you can budget for the future," said Juliot.
Applications can be found here once they open.