While Mayor Latoya Cantrell’s administration recently reinstated overtime pay for New Orleans Firefighters, President of the Firefighter Union, Aaron Mischler, says it still doesn’t do enough to get the city’s fire department at a safe place to operate.
“With us having a new recruit class in the academy and us receiving a grant to hire 63 new firefighters, it is going to ‘stem the tide’ a little bit but it is not actually going to get us to where we need to be at the time. But it is welcomed,” said Mischler.
Mischler says the NOFD is still down between 100 to 170 firefighters needed to operate safely.
“One of our former Superintendents, Charles Parent, stated in a budget hearing a while back, that the lowest number we can get to and still be a safe department would be 694 firefighters,” said Mischler. “Right now we are hovering somewhere 500 to 525. So, we are quite a bit down.”
Mischler also says the department is having a difficult time keeping firefighters on the force.
“Our attrition rate is through the roof,” said Mischler. “Mainly because we are not competitive with any departments even in this state. Guys are coming on this job, staying for a few years, and moving on to better opportunities.”
A few reasons for the department’s low attrition rate, Mischler says, is the department’s low pay and its lengthy retirement plan.
“We are one of the lower-paid departments and our retirement system,” said Mischler.
“The rest of the state is based on 30 years and in New Orleans, you have to go 40 years before you can get your full retirement.”
Those factors, he says, cause a trend of firefighters coming to NOFD to get the training and experience then moving on to other fire departments.
While the department is down on manpower, their call volume has nearly doubled.