{"id":311859,"date":"2026-10-22T12:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T12:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/311859\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T12:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T12:14:12","slug":"is-bethlehem-fire-department-understaffed-what-a-new-city-review-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/311859\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Bethlehem Fire Department understaffed? What a new city review found"},"content":{"rendered":"

A city-commissioned study suggested Bethlehem could construct a fire station in the southeast portion of the city and add firefighters, even though it did not have to do so.<\/p>\n

The study is meant to provide guidelines and act as a reference manual, according to Mayor J. William Reynolds, City Council member Justin Amann; and city Business Administrator Eric Evans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is meant to inform us for what we\u2019ll need in years to come,\u201d said Amann, chair of council\u2019s public safety committee. \u201cThe idea is we will continue to have these discussions for many years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study of Bethlehem\u2019s Fire Department and emergency medical services was presented Tuesday night to the public safety committee.<\/p>\n

The $80,000, 176-page study by Washington-based Center for Public Safety Management was authorized by city officials in February. Reynolds said the last study of this nature was done about 30 years ago.<\/p>\n

The study doesn\u2019t entirely align with one commissioned by city firefighters that said the department is understaffed and should have 30 firefighters per shift per platoon versus the existing 24 per shift per platoon.<\/p>\n

Firefighters made up many of the 30 audience members who attended Evans\u2019 presentation at City Hall.<\/p>\n

The firefighters\u2019 study, released in October 2025<\/a>, was conducted by the International Association of Firefighters, which gathered its recommendations from the National Fire Protection Association.<\/p>\n

According to the city study, the 24 per shift per platoon staff level is widely used, but fire Chief Matthew Griffin said there are rarely 24 on duty and the average is 20 because of staff being out on vacation, sick or personal time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just fluctuates daily,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Several firefighters who addressed council stressed the need for more staff. \u2019<\/p>\n

Firefighter Robert Hager said the understaffed department is evident \u201cwhen we send the same number of firefighters to a major industrial fire and to a residential fire. \u2026 Bethlehem can do better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCome to the fire house and talk to us about our individual experiences,\u201d fire Lt. Darrel Higgins said, referring to times when three calls come in at once.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat happens a lot more than numbers tell,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Reynolds did not rule out adding to the department.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are absolutely considering more firefighters,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is one of many considerations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study said the city should \u201cstrongly consider\u201d building a fire station in the southeastern part of the city, which is \u201cexperiencing significant industrial, warehousing, and commercial growth.\u201d Responses to that area take longer than recommended it found.<\/p>\n

Doing so could cost $5 million-$12 million, depending on the square footage, and the price of labor and material when it is built.<\/p>\n

Among other notable findings in the study were a high volume of false alarms \u2014 in 2025 there were 1,334, 54% more than in 2018.\n<\/p>\n

The city has an ordinance regarding false alarms, which Reynolds said \u201chas not been openly aggressive but we should come up with something stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

The EMS side of the study recommended increasing staff to accommodate the highest volume of calls that come during the day, up from 8,608 in 2019 to 12,260 last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, Bethlehem EMS represents a strong and professionally managed EMS system that provides reliable, clinically competent emergency medical care to the community,\u201d the study said.<\/p>\n

The study is available on the city\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Charles Malinchak is a freelance writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A city-commissioned study suggested Bethlehem could construct a fire station in the southeast portion of the city and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,1391,202,182,139,434,28,432],"class_list":["post-311859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-bethlehem-area","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-northampton-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}