AUBURN-

Things were looking up for the Auburn City Fire Department a two years ago when it received a $690,000 SAFER  (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) grant from the state.  It funded five full-time firefighters that allowed the 16 person department to staff a second engine company.

“Our response times to medical emergencies and fires has dropped almost 30 percent, which is great,” Department Division Chief Tom Carlisle said.

But that grant has not been renewed  and the department is now looking to layoff a third of its department. Department officials says the extra fire fighters allowed it to develop prevention education programs and do fire inspections of businesses and defensible space rules at homes.

Before the added staff, it was all the department could do to keep up with fire and medical calls. The department has three fire stations, but only one is staffed.  The other two are volunteer stations that are only activated during a fire.

The city council apparently knows the value of the extra fire fighters, but several have said they don’t know where money can be found in the budget to keep current staffing levels.  Some have said saving a few jobs may the best they can do, if that.

If they are laid off, some will go back to the ranks of volunteers.

“Their availability to us would be greatly diminished due to the fact that they’ll have jobs somewhere else,” Carlisle said.

The fire department is not unlike many other police and fire agencies that chose to apply for temporary grant money to retain services, knowing the money was not a steady source of income.

The city is late in developing its budget this year and should have a final determination by July.  The grant ends in September in the middle of the fire season in the foothills.