Fire officials hire, promote to boost ranks

An end is in sight to the Costa Mesa Fire Department’s personnel shortage, especially in leadership positions, fire officials said Tuesday.

A string of retirements, plus a couple of firings, left the department understaffed, Costa Mesa Battalion Chief Scott Broussard said. But the department is now taking vigorous steps to correct the problem with hirings and promotions.

Fire officials have promoted two battalion chiefs from within, bringing the department up to its full complement of three, Broussard said. Officials will hold a captain’s test in March, expecting to promote an unprecedented seven captains from the medics, firefighters and engineers who take it. And on Jan. 3, he said, eight prospective medics will go through a simulation of a medical emergency as they begin an intensive six-month screening process.

Broussard said the department is only down from full recruitment by four or five people now and the normal process could handle that.

He said battalion chiefs, who coordinate operations for everyone on duty in the shift they’re assigned to, were desperately needed for morale.

“It’s been four months since we had all three” battalion chiefs, he said. “The key is getting our numbers up to a level that the guys trust. And if they trust us, they’ll trust the department to be OK.”

Broussard said the department has never had enough medics because the work is so demanding. Either they can’t keep up and are fired, or all the quick thinking they do on duty gets them promoted to captain.

“We’ve had to fire a couple lately,” Broussard said. “And I’d guess that of seven captains we promote, five will be medics.”

The department has revamped its application process because medics are so important. Hiring the wrong person wastes six months and thousands of dollars in rigorous testing and background checks, he said. Now, they run through a simulated major medical emergency before even starting their medical, psychological, physical and background assessments.

“It’s hard to stay competent as a medic when you’re not doing the job every day,” he said.