New Castle County's fire departments are struggling. The solution? It may take some time

Kenn Dunn, deputy chief administrator of New Castle County's government, knew last April that at least two of the county's 21 fire companies were struggling.

In his briefing to the County's Fire Association during a meeting last April, Dunn relayed that two companies had privately expressed concerns that they were "in trouble" and were unsure if they would be able to stay afloat for more than the next two years, according to meeting minutes from this gathering.

Dwindling volunteer numbers leading to rising personnel costs, rising insurance costs and inflationary impacts on fire apparatus and equipment have made it difficult for fire companies in Delaware's most populous county to operate.

The New Castle County Fire Service, tasked with providing fire and emergency medical services to a majority of the county's nearly 581,000 residents, has called for New Castle County's government to not only supplement their services the way it has for other public safety departments like police and emergency communications, but to restructure the way fire companies make budgetary requests.

In October 2023, a budget amendment was passed, allocating $90,000 for a third-party consulting firm to conduct a financial feasibility assessment on the county's fire companies.

In the meantime, County Executive Matt Meyer, in his most recent budget proposal for the 2025 fiscal year, proposed a total of $5.2 million go to the county's fire service.

But the service's leadership says it just isn't enough.

How much have costs increased?

Dennis Godek, chairman of the New Castle County Fire Service's Leadership Committee, has seen firsthand how the operation costs for fire, rescue and EMS companies have gone up over the last 54 years.

Insurance costs have risen 125%, vehicle maintenance costs have increased 49% and fuel has increased 50% over the last four years alone.

Fire engines and ladder trucks range from around $1.5 to $2 million and ambulances cost a minimum of $250,000. While these machines can last up to around 20 years, they can take about two to three years to be delivered after placing an order.

In order to keep up with stricter response time requirements, fire services over the past two decades have had to hire twice as many career firefighters to continuously staff their stations. Today, there are around 200 career firefighters throughout the county, leading to higher personnel costs.

It is also common practice now for multiple companies to respond to a single call due to limited resources. If a structure fire happens under Elsmere’s jurisdiction, chances are firefighters from nearby stations Five Points and Minquas would also show up to the call.

But the largest portion of the fire company’s funds come from property insurance surcharges, which provide around $800,000 for each fire company to use.

“No fire company in this county can operate on the funds appropriated from these sources in today’s world,” Godek said.

Proposed increase to fire companies 'an insult'

While no official concerns were made or actions were taken, the concerns brought up during the New Castle County Volunteer Fire Service meeting last April was one of the first signs of immediate concern for the New Castle County Fire Service’s long-term sustainability.

Last year, County Executive Matt Meyer's budget increased the fire service’s funding by 3%, and later tacked on an additional 5.69% bump via a budget amendment. This year’s budget proposal in March recommended an additional 3% increase in funds to the fire service, adding around $5.23 million in county funds for the 21 fire companies that make up the New Castle County Fire Service.

In the past four years, Meyer has set aside nearly $35 million for the county's fire service, including covering certain housing and medical costs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Federal grants and funds from the state and county combined add up to around $7 million per year for the 21 companies to use. While it’s not usually distributed equally among the companies, it averages out to around $400,000 per company.

In response to the calls for more funding, New Castle County Government contracted consulting firm FACETS to perform a feasibility study on the county’s 21 fire companies. Results are expected in October.

"Our fire service budgeting is changing with decreased volunteerism and revenues that do not keep up with inflationary costs, and this is the reason why we're doing FACETS study," Meyer said, noting he wants to see the results before making further decisions. "However we intend to provide emergency funding to companies in dire straits if service levels will be impacted in any way before the study is complete.”

Along with the fire service, the County’s Police Department budget also saw a 4.5% recommended increase for funding. Meyer proposed raising the starting salary for New Castle County Police Department officers to $72,000. And the county’s emergency communications program saw a 12% bump in its funding for the most recent budget proposal.

While the fire commission publicly commended the increased budget for police, paramedics and emergency communication departments in the county, Godek called the fire service’s budget proposal an “insult” and “unacceptable” in his presentation to County Council’s Finance Committee.

What do the fire companies need?

On May 2, the New Castle County Fire and Ambulance Advisory Board presented a budget request to New Castle County’s Finance Committee on behalf of the county’s 21 fire companies that make up the New Castle County Fire Service.

To Godek, this means the establishment of a "permanent and consistent" funding mechanism for the New Castle County Fire Service across all levels of government.

For decades, the way fire service budgets have been granted in New Castle County was with increases of a few percentage points, if that, to the previous year's total budget. The specific financial or operational needs of the 21 fire companies typically aren't spelled out in budget requests to the county.

During a County Budget Hearing presentation, Godek called on the county to make a “one-time, interim” payment of $13.5 million to the Fire Service while they await the results of the feasibility study. This number was presented to New Castle County Council by Council President Karen Hartley Nagle.

An additional request was made to increase funding to the Special Operations Teams, tasked with marine rescues, collapse and confined space rescue, and other highly specialized jobs, from $28,000 to $100,000.

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Councilman Bill Bell, along with other members of council, said the best course of action would be to wait until the FACETS study is complete before nearly doubling the fire service's budget.

In his proposed budget amendment, Bell posited that around a $1.6 million increase to the fire service's ambulance funds would be enough to sustain the corporations until the October release of FACETS study results, which coincides with the beginning of planning for the next year's budget.

Discussions from council members mostly conceded that it would be best to wait for the results of the financial feasibility study before allocating a large amount of funds to the fire service, and the $1.6 million proposed by Bell is better than nothing, according to Godek at the budget hearing last Thursday.

"We believe that we put up justification for our original request, but we're practical and interested in what we can get... but we have to get something that council will support," Godek said. "There truly is a crisis."

Molly McVety covers community and environmental issues around Delaware. Contact her at mmcvety@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @mollymcvety.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: New Castle County's Fire Service is struggling. What can be done?