The federal government has awarded a $9 million grant to Phoenix Fire Department to hire more firefighters.
As part of a grant, the city plans to hire 50 additional rescuers over the next two years to serve the metropolitan area.
The new hires come as many are expected to retire soon. The money will help replace those positions and add staff to help with the growing number of calls in the area.
This grant is expected to cover benefits for the new firefighters, as well as equipment, trucks, fuel and station maintenance.
Fire Captain Rob McDade said that the grant is essential to a growing city that he said is understaffed.
“Without a grant like this, we would be looking at fire houses looking at low minimum staffing, we would be looking at enormous costs in overtime to the city to maintain adequate staffing for all the fire trucks,” said McDade.
In addition to this grant, the department recently received more than half a million dollars toward training programs that prepare captains and chiefs for high-critical incidents.