Will Budget Cuts Impact Firefighters Abilities to Fight Wildfires?

By Adrianna Iwasinski, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma City Fire Department is doing more with less, but how are budget cuts impacting their ability to fight fires?

Budget cuts led the department to eliminate 29 positions. Though they did not lose any firefighters on the line, they did lose the use of some of their trucks.

"Losing those 29 positions required us to put one engine and three brush pumpers out of service so those are no longer out there responding to calls," says Oklahoma City Fire Chief Keith Bryant. "If we had a large groundcover fire you wouldn't have as many resources to deploy on that incident as we normally have in the past."

Though the trucks are still around and can be used, the department simply does not have the manpower to run them. And with recent floods causing all vegetation to grow fuller faster, there's a worry of what that will mean once a grassfire is sparked.

"Some of the greatest dollar loss that we've had in the history of Oklahoma City has been due to brush fires," said Phil Sipe, President of the International Firefighters Association local union. "So three of those fire trucks that were put out of service were specifically designed to fight those types of fires."

Despite the cuts, Chief Bryant considers his department lucky.

"There's many cities in the country that are in a lot worse economic shape than we are that are having to close fire stations, lay off firefighters, so forth, to this point we haven't had to do that," Chief Bryant said.

Chief Bryant adds the MAPS 3 Use Tax helped the OKC Fire Department buffer that and avoid laying off 45 firefighters or closing any fire stations.

And Oklahoma City is still on track to build three new fire stations and relocate station 4 to a brand new building in northeast Oklahoma City near the Turner Turnpike.

Despite that, the local firefighter's union is concerned what the future may hold, especially if there are more budget cuts on the horizon.

"Can we continue to protect the citizens if that trend continues? The answer to that question is no," said Sipe.

The Oklahoma City Fire Department has 922 firefighters, 35 stations, and 75 total emergency response vehicles covering more than half a million people. While the fire department's manpower and equipment count has gone down, Oklahoma City's population has gone up by more than 120,000 people since 1990.

According to the city's planning department, OKC has grown roughly 40 percent since 1977, 27 percent in the past 20 years alone.

More: Are Budget Cuts Impacting OKC Fire Departments' Response Times?