Department to hire more firefighters 

The Sweetwater County Fire Department was given the go ahead to start adding staff to its department.

During the Sweetwater County Commissioners meeting Tuesday morning, the Commissioners voted unanimously to approve a request from Sweetwater County Fire Warden Mike Bournazian for an additional seven firefighting personal, which would cost about $239,000.

Bournazian requested one additional full-time firefighter/engine boss, two nine-month seasonal firefighters, three sixth-month seasonal firefighters and one three-month firefighter. These additions would allow the department to staff for seven days a week, which is something it hasn’t been able to do.

Bournazian said he has made efforts in the past to try and address the understaffing in this department.

“In my opinion, this department has never been staffed appropriately,” Bournazian said. “We don’t have enough people to respond. We had several fires we had no one to send to.”

Last year, everyone in the department worked for at least 28 days straight without a day off. He said they simply can’t continue to do that.

Chairman Wally Johnson wanted to know what the firefighters were going to do when they aren’t fighting fires.

Bournazian said the firefighters work closely to entities to implement fire prevention measures. The department often works with the Sweetwater County Parks and Recreation Department at Pioneer Park to remove dead Cottonwoods and other dead trees and brush from that park. It also works with Granger and Superior to build fire breaks in areas where the towns are most at risk. They are also in the process of getting a plan created with Wyoming State Forestry to remove dead trees on the top of Little Mountain.

When they aren’t busy with fire prevention, they are helping out at the Sweetwater County Events Complex or attending trainings.

“We certainly don’t sit around the station,” he said. “Risk mitigation is huge for us.”

The Commissioners also asked how this change would impact this year’s budget. Bournazian said he didn’t anticipate it to impact this year’s budget. He anticipated he could fill about 50 percent of those positions quickly because they still have quality applicants who just applied for an opening on file. However, the other positions may take longer to fill because other firefighting agencies started recruited their firefighters in November.

“It will be a challenge to fill all of these,” he said.

Prior to approval, Chairman Johnson made it clear to Bournazian that even though this was approved at this time it doesn’t lock the county into a specific budget for next year.