Nov. 16--ST. LOUIS COUNTY -- Combining 43 fire districts and municipal departments into a single agency to protect St. Louis and St. Louis County would bring response times down to national standards 90 percent of the time, according to a study released Monday.
Currently, St. Louis meets the four-minute response standard with its 30 firehouses. But only 70 percent of the calls for 42 St. Louis County departments and districts, operating from 88 stations, meet that standard, the study notes.
The county is broken into 19 municipal departments and 23 fire protection districts.
The study is the result of a year-long dialogue among the organization Better Together and fire chiefs and firefighters.
It says other benefits of a single regional district include:
--A unified command and control structure with standardized equipment.
--Large-scale equipment purchases at a discounted rate.
--A better structure to form specialized units for unique disasters.
--Elimination of equipment redundancies.
--Uniform training and pay parity.
The change would require an additional 24 fire stations and about 1,130 more firefighters, along with clerical staff and mechanics, for a cost of about $192 million.
But, the study notes, the costs could be spread out over time and savings from a variety of factors -- in health care, repair and maintenance efficiencies, improved insurance ratings and greater purchasing power. It suggests the unification could be cost-neutral by year five.
The current services cost approximately $334 million annually, according to the study.
It does not deal with fire departments outside St. Louis and St. Louis County.
"The modern firefighter's job is incredibly demanding and complex, and our region's firefighters work tirelessly to save lives and property," said Nancy Rice, executive director of Better Together, in a statement. "However, the unfortunate reality is that problems within the structure of our services create an environment that is both inefficient and potentially dangerous."
St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson, a member of the study committee, said that while many details need to be negotiated, the report provides a road map toward better services.
Better Together is a St. Louis-based nonprofit studying a city-county merger, through a series of reports that point to inefficiencies in public safety, public finance, public health and economic development. The city operates as its own separate county.
In September, the group released its first report on the fire districts, pointing out how a lack of standardized operating procedures, training and repair facilities increases inefficiencies and jeopardizes public safety. The result, it said, is a disparity in what the region's poorer and wealthier areas receive in fire protection.
Jennifer Mann 314-621-5804
@j_s_mann on Twitter
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