CALDWELL, Idaho — Following a fire at the Caldwell Darigold plant last Tuesday, fire crews are reflecting on their response to the fire. Agencies from all over the Treasure Valley responded to the fire, but the president of the Caldwell Firefighters Union is concerned that the help was needed at all.
Will Gigray said his concerns surround the department's lack of an adequate ladder truck and the crew to operate it.
"What got me to say that was the fact that for years now, we have been asking for more staffing, that our staffing levels are too low, that we need more personnel," Gigray explained. "The real question Caldwell taxpayers should be asking is, why doesn't your fire department have an adequate ladder truck? Or the personnel to staff it?"
The Caldwell Fire Department's ladder truck has been out of service for several years due to the inability to hire staff to operate it.
When a fire started at the Darigold plant in Caldwell, crews from around the Treasure Valley were called to respond to the fire. While Gigray is thankful for the support, he feels the city has failed to keep up with the growing population.
"We are at 0.5 firefighters per 1,000 and its like, at what point in time do we keep going the other direction?" Gigray said. "And then it's going to be way too expensive for the city to try to catch up and we will never get there."
According to national standards, a city should have one firefighter per every 1,000 people. Gigray said the Caldwell department is operating with only 45 firefighters. Based on the city's population, the department should have 65.
"We just built a $6 million fire station, state of the art so that we would have better response times to the east of Caldwell," Caldwell Mayor Garret Nancolas said. "That took us several years to save for that, that's a major expenditure for a city the size of Caldwell. It's difficult trying to justify spending to man a ladder truck when we literally never use one."
75% of the city's property tax dollars are used to fund safety services, according to Nancolas. 12% of that money is used to maintain roads and streets, while the remaining 13% is used for parks and recreation, the airport and City Hall.
"As we are growing, we need more resources but they cost a lot of money and we are doing and investing the best that we can be based on the revenues that we have," Nancolas said.
Steve Donahue, the deputy fire chief of Caldwell Fire, said the ladder truck is not staffed because it rarely gets used. In the case of the Darigold fire, however, a ladder truck was needed.
"Would we like to get more? Absolutely," Donahue said. "But I'm not the person to raise the taxes. I'm the person that when they tell me what we are going to get out of property taxes then we make the best use of it that we can."
Gigray worries about being able to keep up with the growing city by relying on mutual aid.
"Nampa had their ladder truck over here and an engine. Meridian had their ladder truck over here and an engine. Those are two apparatus that the taxpayers of those cities pay for and expect if something were to happen in their city and they are over in ours because we quite simply wouldn't be able to do anything without ladder trucks," he said. "We need more people, we need to have more employees and if it's not budgeted, for now, it's never going to happen."
Donahue said the city has budgeted to replace the fire department's ladder truck, but it will not be available until 2025.
The cause of the Darigold plant fire remains under investigation.