COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Columbia-Richland Fire Department is working to get more money from Richland County.
Recently, the Columbia-Richland Firefighters Association posted a release on their Facebook page, explaining that they're operating fire trucks on a daily basis with only three firefighters because of a lack of funding.
"We can't in good faith remain silent about the lack of firefighters available to respond to our citizens' emergencies," says Jacob Eller, President of the Columbia Firefighters Association.
Richland County Council recently approved the budgets for Fiscal Year 2020 and 2021 during a July council meeting. In that meeting, council explained that they were not aware of the ongoing financial need of the fire department, but will work to find a way to increase their $21.3M budget to $23M.
"I am in favor of the fire department getting every nickel that they need," explained Richland County Vice Chair Dalhi Myers, during the July 18, 2019 third-reading budget meeting.
There is $28M allocated to the fire department fund. However, council explained that nearly $7M of that money goes towards maintenance.
Chief Aubrey Jenkins says he understands the concerns about being short staffed in the department.
"We do have people on military leave, we cannot fill those positions," says Jenkins. "We've got people out for various reasons, for workers comp, and even some that may have some type of long-term illness or sickness obtained off the job. So, those are openings that have, but we can't feel those, because as long as we have someone in those spots, we can fill those spots."
He says the department needs to be able to approve overtime, but the Richland County budget won't allow for that.
The fire department receives about $44M combined from both the City of Columbia and Richland County.
"We're good on the City side, but we just haven't been able to fulfill that fully on the County side," says Jenkins.
Currently Richland County Council is waiting on results from a survey, that will give an analysis on the fire department. From there, council could work to allocate more money to the department.