BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 A consultant\u2019s study recommends Bethlehem add 28 firefighters over the next several years, and a City Council committee takes up the report Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The study found Bethlehem\u2019s two- and three-person fire crews leave the department short of the firefighters a serious building fire demands, and three trucks run with no officer in charge. Its staffing plan would cost about $3.1 million a year. The city has not said which parts it will pursue.<\/p>\n
The Public Safety Committee meets at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in Town Hall, 10 E. Church St., with the 177-page Fire\/EMS Operations Study<\/a> as its only item. Committee Chair Justin Amann reports on it at the 7 p.m. council meeting, which has a public comment period. Both meetings stream on the city\u2019s YouTube channel.<\/p>\n Nothing is decided yet. The report calls its recommendations \u201cconsiderations\u201d and says some would require union negotiations and may need funding over several years. The city posted the study and the committee\u2019s agenda Friday and has not announced it publicly.<\/p>\n 22% read<\/p>\n The rest is free. It signs you up for our free newsletter, Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, and that\u2019s all we use it for. Do it once and every story stays open.You left the newsletter, so stories past here need your email again. Rejoin and every story opens.<\/p>\n You\u2019re in. Read on.<\/p>\n What the study found<\/p>\n The Center for Public Safety Management, or CPSM, calls Bethlehem\u2019s emergency services \u201ca strong and professionally managed\u201d system. The city\u2019s fire protection rates Class 2 on the insurance industry\u2019s 1-to-10 scale, where 1 is best, and CPSM says its recommendations are \u201cnot intended to correct systemic deficiencies.\u201d<\/p>\n But small crews can\u2019t handle all the jobs at a serious building fire at once, such as attacking the fire, searching for people and securing water, CPSM says. Engine 3 and both ladder trucks run with two firefighters and no officer, and Engine 9 often runs with two, the report says.<\/p>\n CPSM would fix that in two steps. First, 12 new firefighters and 12 lieutenant promotions would put three people, including an officer, on every truck, raising the minimum on-duty staff each shift from 19 to 22. The study prices that at $1.36 million.<\/p>\n Later, 16 more firefighters would put four on both ladders and on Engines 5 and 9, which work alone from their stations, at $1.73 million. By the study\u2019s figures, both steps total about $3.1 million a year at 2026 starting pay and benefits.<\/p>\n The study also found:<\/p>\n In nine of 10 fire calls, the Northampton County 911 center sent crews in 3.2 minutes or less, compared with a 64-second national benchmark. CPSM said it was told those times rose after the county took over city dispatch.<\/p>\n About 43% of the city is within a four-minute drive of a fire station.<\/p>\n Bethlehem EMS calls grew more than 40% from 2019 to 2025, and nearly two-thirds of EMS calls come in while another is still underway.<\/p>\n CPSM recommends sending firefighters with Bethlehem EMS to the most serious medical calls, but it said dispatch rules and the firefighters\u2019 contract now limit that. It also suggests running the daytime ambulance around the clock at $403,192 for four paramedics, building a new fire station in the southeast at $5 million to $12 million and automatically sending Allentown and Easton firefighters to building fires.<\/p>\n Own a local business?<\/p>\n Put it in front of Lehigh Valley readers. Leave your email and we\u2019ll send our rates.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll only use it to reply. This doesn\u2019t sign you up for anything.<\/p>\n A schedule option<\/p>\n The study lays out a way to add people to each shift without hiring: switching to three rotating shifts working 24 hours at a time. With the same 96 people the department has now, each shift would grow from 24 to 32, enough to cover the first staffing step, CPSM said.<\/p>\n Firefighters would work 56-hour weeks instead of 42, about 33% more hours, and the report notes that if salaries stayed the same, their pay per hour worked would drop 25%. The firefighters\u2019 contract sets the current schedule.<\/p>\n The union\u2019s push<\/p>\n Bethlehem Firefighters IAFF Local 735, which has pressed for more staffing for years, posted the study Friday and urged residents to attend.<\/p>\n \u201cBut doing the best we can with what we have should never be treated as proof that we have everything we need,\u201d union President Lou Jimenez wrote.<\/p>\n Days earlier, the union asked that CPSM present its findings and answer questions. At a Sept. 15 council meeting<\/a>, Business Administrator Eric Evans told members the city would present the entire report Tuesday. The city has not said whether CPSM will be there.<\/p>\n How the study got here<\/p>\n At that meeting, council member Jo Daniels said CPSM began work Feb. 17 under a contract that gave it 120 days, which would have meant a finished report by mid-June. Evans said it became clear around June that the work would take longer, and the contract was extended to Oct. 31.<\/p>\n He agreed CPSM\u2019s part was substantially complete, with its latest sections sent in August, and said the city was still reviewing them.<\/p>\n
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