Inman Fire Chief Chris Cothran said Tuesday the city council should begin thinking about funding a 24/7 fire department. At Monday’s budget work session, Cothran proposed $243,000 in new funding to pay for roughly 10 firefighters to cover two 12-hour shifts, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
He said the number of volunteer firefighters has dropped in recent years, jeopardizing quick response times to a fire. And that could cost lives, he said. “Volunteers are hard to get,” he said. “I’m just trying to close the gap and provide better protection.” Councilman Ray Rogers was the only member who responded to Cothran’s proposal.
“This is the first I’m hearing about increasing staff of the fire department,” Rogers said, noting it would take a more than 20-mill tax increase to fund Cothran’s request. “It did catch us off guard. In concept, that’s certainly an admirable goal.”