By Hector Gonzalez
Staff Writer

June 2, 2015 --  Santa Monica Fire Department will need a second rescue ambulance and six paramedics to deal with the Expo Light Rail line next year and a continuing increase in emergency calls, according to the department's recent budget request.

Delivering his first budget proposal to the City Council, Interim Fire Chief Dennis Downs said a $3 million increase in the second year of his proposed two-year spending plan represents salaries for new full-time firefighters and new equipment.

The department's proposed budget for 2015-16 is $35.9 million, increasing to $39.6 million in the 2016-17 fiscal year, said Downs, who was hired last month to replace outgoing Chief Scott Ferguson.  Ferguson took a job as chief of the Murrieta Fire Department.

Addressing council members during one of the panel's two budget study sessions last week, Downs said most of the Fire Department's budget is “salary driven.” Employees' salaries and benefits make up 94 percent of the department's total annual budget, with the rest going toward equipment and other expenses, said Downs.

Santa Monica's firefighter have, on average, five years on the job, while at the same time, 15 percent of the department's 129 or so firefighters are eligible now for retirement, which “makes training all the more important,” said Downs.

Firefighters ready to move up in rank have attended the department's special academies for battalion chief and other higher ranks, helping to augment their training, he said.

According to the department's budget overview, $1.1 million will go into training for firefighters in 2016-17, nearly $1 million more than in 2015-16.  Among the department's training division's listed goals, officials plan to train 500 residents in CPR by June 30 of next year.

Firefighters also will partner with the City's Community and Cultural Services Division to develop an after-school fire education program by the end of this year, the overview said.

Last year, local firefighters and paramedics responded to 14,000 incidents, 80 percent of which were emergency medical calls. Such calls increased 7.6 last year, the chief said.

Overall, 9-1-1 calls to the Fire Department increased 5.8 percent last year from 2013, but that increase wasn't unusual, said Downs.

“It isn't an aberration; it continues to climb at about the same rate every year,” he said.

Also last year, firefighters made more than 9,000 fire inspections, 86 percent of which were residential inspections at apartment buildings, the chief said.

“We're trying to achieve 100 percent,” said Ferguson, adding that the inspections save lives.