The Riverside Fire Authority responds to a fully involved residential structure fire in the 1000 block of West Main Street last month in Centralia.
The Riverside Fire Authority announced Saturday it will be hiring four full-time firefighters after receiving a $1.3 million grant from the federal government.
According to a press release, the Riverside Fire Authority Board of Commissioners authorized Chief Michael Kytta to submit a grant application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency requesting the funding through the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) program.
The authority learned its application was approved on Sept. 11, and on Oct. 14 the board voted unanimously to accept the grant and provide about $100,000 in matching money that will be required over a three-year-period.
“Riverside Fire Authority personnel respond to over 4,000 calls for service annually, approximately 75 percent are emergency medical calls and 25 percent are fire or non-medical in nature,” fire commissioner Lee Coumbs wrote in a press release. “The hiring of four full-time firefighters will move the RFA closer to the goal of having a minimum staffing level of five personnel on duty each day. In 2014, the RFA laid off a total of eight positions. This is the first opportunity we have had to bring back responders to the shifts increasing our total daily staffing from four on duty to five but still falling short of the six personnel per day that we had prior to 2014.”
The hiring process to fill the new positions will start immediately with a goal of having the positions filled and personnel assigned on-shift in January 2021, according to the press release.
