Issue
Stations, staffing, training, and programs for the city's fire and emergency medical crews.
City Council
The $20 million donation from Highmark Health will cover purchasing 13 new fire trucks. Because the donation will be split over five years, the Equipment Leasing Authority requested council’s approval to enter into a financing agreement for the trucks. Buying them all at one time allows for a price discount, though the city will have to pay a little more than $2 million in interest on the financing.
City Council
The city's emergency medical services bureau has 15 paramedic vacancies. On Nov. 20, its chief said she hopes the city will someday open an in-house paramedic academy. However, the 2026 preliminary budget can't cover such a program. A deputy chief said the bureau has also spent $7.2 million on overtime this year, twice what was budgeted.
City Council
The city doesn't fund the fire bureau's effort to give residents free smoke detectors. On Nov. 20, the fire chief said there's a backlog of 1,000 requests. Even so, his $20,000 request for detectors was denied in the preliminary budget. Like other public safety departments, the bureau also has too much overtime pay.
City Council
Neighbors have wanted a new fire station in Lincoln Place for decades, a council member said. Now, Public Works has asked council for $4.5 million more to move Fire Station 20 there from a floodplain in Hays. That would bring the total cost to $17.7 million. Still, the station will have a small community room instead of the community center neighbors wanted.
City Council
In the 2022 Fern Hollow Bridge collapse, rescue dogs had to come from eastern Pennsylvania. Now, the state has given the city $6 million for a task force specializing in collapses, floods, and other disasters. An assistant fire chief tied the need to that collapse and said two puppies are already in training. They'll be the only live-find dogs west of Harrisburg.
City Council
The Pittsburgh Fire Department will provide fire and disaster management services to Wilkinsburg under a five-year deal. Council approved the agreement, which has a total cost of about $11.9 million. The two have had these deals since 2011, and the new one is retroactive to January 2024. Services include smoke detector installation and fire code enforcement, but each keeps its own emergency medical services.