PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia Fire Department has nearly 300 vacant positions, which the city's financial watchdog says is the reason the department's overtime shot up by more than $11 million between January and March.
Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel was asked about it at City Council budget hearings Wednesday.
He says he is trying to fill the vacancies as fast as possible but he's hampered by how fast he can get trainees through the fire academy.
Right now, he says, there are 200 cadets in training, but it takes nine months to get them ready.
"Our training academy is severely constrained by its size and it hasn't been updated in decades so we're actually having to take those fire cadets to Bucks County," Thiel said.
He's also got a large number of openings for paramedics.
"There's a state shortage of paramedics, there's a regional shortage of paramedics and of course, there's a citywide shortage of paramedics," he added.
Thiel says he has trouble competing for paramedics with departments that are better-staffed because they can provide more downtime on each shift, whereas in Philadelphia, paramedics don't get as much free time.
"The time that our paramedics are on duty, they are committed to an incident 100 percent of the time," Thiel explained.
Thiel says he's working with Randolph Skills Center and the Explorers program to encourage more Philadelphians to become paramedics.
