Lincoln officials announced on Thursday the city was awarded a multimillion-dollar federal grant that will help Lincoln Fire and Rescue hire nine more firefighters.
The three-year, $2.3 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will cover a portion of the salaries and benefits for the new firefighters, who will begin service next summer.
“These nine new staff members will allow LFR to be better positioned to respond to increasing service demands in the coming years,” said Chief Dave Engler, who made the announcement at a news conference with Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird.
According to the department’s 2024 annual report, LFR had 332 sworn and 24 civilian employees, along with 16 fire stations. The department serves about 300,000 people living within about 100 square miles.
The report also said the department responded to about 35,000 emergency incidents last year and had a $54 million budget during the 2023-2024 fiscal year.
“The grant is designed to provide more fire companies with the minimum staffing of four personnel,” Engler said, later adding: “What these (new) individuals will be doing is they’ll be taking the place of people that might be on vacation or something where we have holes in the system.”
LFR received a $5.9 million grant from FEMA in 2023 to help pay for 18 additional firefighters and paramedics, and a $2.2 million FEMA grant in 2018 for 15 more.
Engler made two more announcements Thursday, including that LFR received a nearly $300,000 FEMA grant for enhanced firefighter physicals starting in January. One focus of the physicals will be early detection of cancer and heart disease.
The third announcement was that LFR has a new partnership with Ready Rebound, an organization that facilitates access to orthopedic specialists, diagnostics and treatment.
Jamie Pospisil, the department’s battalion chief of emergency medical service, also attended the news conference to announce the department’s cardiac arrest survival rate improved last year.
The department treated 132 cardiac patients who suffered from a non-traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in 2024, with 25.8% surviving, up from 22.4% in 2023. The national average is 10.4%.
Pospisil also said Lincoln residents performed CPR prior to LFR arrival 69.5% of the time in 2024, which surpasses the national average of 41.4%.
“I am exceptionally proud of the EMS professionals with whom I serve and the community members whose actions support the health and safety for all,” Pospisil said.
Reach the reporter at pbreen@journalstar.com or 216-287-8623.
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