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New positions added to FD Fire Dept.

Since the Fort Dodge Fire Department became the sole provider of ambulance service in the city and surrounding areas, its roster has grown and its workload has just about exploded.

The department added 12 people on July 1, 2018, when it assumed responsibility for the ambulance service once operated by UnityPoint Health — Trinity Regional Medical Center. It now has about 49 members.

Those firefighters and paramedics are very busy.

Fire Chief Steve Hergenreter told the City Council on Monday that on a recent day, the department responded to 30 medical emergencies and two fires.

To help manage the staff and the workload, the City Council on Monday approved adding another lieutenant’s position to each shift.

That means each of the three shifts will have a captain, two lieutenants, nine firefighter-paramedics and at least two civilian paramedics who are not crosstrained as firefighters.

Hergenreter told the council Monday that adding the new lieutenant positions will aid the ”span of control” in the department.

In a report to the council, Hergenreter wrote that adding the new positions will actually save about $3,000 a year. The savings are largely accomplished by eliminating an assistant fire chief position that has been vacant since Lenny Sanders resigned in June 2018 to become the fire science coordinator at Iowa Central Community College. That move saved $81,500.

To fill the new positions, the council promoted firefighters Nathan Conrad, Nick Carlson and Ben Waynar. All three are certified as firefighters, paramedics and hazardous materials technicians.

Conrad has been a firefighter since 2007. Carlson joined the Fire Department in 2012, and Waynar joined a year later.

”The talent in our organization is extraordinary,” Hergenreter said.

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