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Provo Fire Chief James Miguel addresses the crowd at the ceremony to open the newly remodeled Provo Fire Station 2 on the anniversary of 9/11 in Provo on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020.

Ari Davis, Special to the Daily Herald

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Mayor Michelle Kaufusi pays tribute to firefighters and first responders during 9/11 services and celebrates the grand opening of Fire Station 22, Sept. 11, 2020. 

Courtesy Provo Fire and Rescue

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The Provo Municipal Council continued to hear presentations and requests for budgets from city departments covering Fiscal Year 2021-2022.

One of the departments reporting was the Fire Department. Chief Jim Miguel gave an update on statistics and demographics of the department.

The department includes 84 full-time employees and one part-time. There are five fire stations with four of those stations having at least four employees, one ambulance and one fire apparatus (truck). Fire Station 1 also has an ambulance on hand, according to Miguel’s report.

Dispatchers received 11,589 fire department-related fire calls.

There were a few areas of the budget request that were still being figured out, but overall the Fire Department budget is asking for approximately $11 million.

“We saw a drop in calls,” Miguel told the council. “We thought it would go up with COVID.”

Miguel noted that many people stayed away from hospitals and emergency rooms and ambulance use went down.

Emergency Medical Services including transportation saw $2 million in revenues in 2020, according to Miguel.

Emergency preparedness was utilized throughout the pandemic year and many other preparedness items were set aside specifically to focus on COVID.

There are 26 full-time positions in the Provo Emergency Communications Center.

“All of our positions are full,” said Miguel. “It is unusual to be fully staffed.”

Miguel said they were the only center full staffed across the state. However, they are right sized for the department’s support budget (overtime expenses).

Miguel said the goal for the department was to add 15 more firefighters and one command officer. They anticipate the first responding unit would arrive on a scene within five minutes and all units would be on the scene within nine minutes.

The Emergency Management team is busy planning the new operations center for the new city building when it is completed in 2022.

Miguel told the council that over the past year, the emergency operations center was activated during the protests, earthquake and for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the past year, the department has engaged consultants to help design a Fire Department Master Plan. That draft was received about two weeks ago. For the next 45 days Miguel and members of his staff will be going over those drafts and will make a presentation to the council at the end of that period.

He also noted that the mental health of his staff has been very important. The city has partnered with Stepstone, a counseling group for public safety and other groups to receive mental health help.

“Stepstone helped counsel with our staff following the recent officer shooting,” Miguel said.

He noted that one counselor immediately got on a plane and was in Provo just hours after the shooting.

In reference to planes, Miguel also said with the growth at the Provo Municipal Airport that team would have to grow its staff to meet the expected demand.

Every time a plane takes off or lands, fire crews are required to be on the ground at the airport and ready if needed during those landings and departures.

When the new city hall is completed Fire Station 1 will be located on the south end of the complex.

With the amount of people downtown it is important for a fire truck to be in Fire Station 1, Miguel noted.