The Watertown Fire Department received funding this year to run two ambulances, and now the challenge is to hire enough paramedics to run both.
Watertown Fire Chief Ryan Nicholson also discussed a fire during the winter when a hydrant had to be shoveled out so that multiple hoses could be used to fight the fire.
In 2025, the City Council approved funding for eight more paramedics so that a second ambulance could be run by the Watertown Fire Department 24/7.
City Manager George Proakis said he has been working with Nicholson, the Human Resources Office to try to get enough staff on board, and opened an alternative pathway for hiring under Civil Service. Nicholson said the Fire Department has made some hires, but still have a couple of openings, and more are expected over the summer.
“So it’s kind of chasing your tail to get caught up, and the process is long,” Nicholson said. “We’ve been trying to speed it up the best we can. Many of the certified paramedics we hired were going to be trained already as firefighters, but this group I think one out of the five is. So many of these people are gonna have to go to the (Fire) Academy. That next academy is booking into October. At this point, we can get people in October class (on duty) around December.”
After one of this winter’s major snowstorms, fire crews had trouble accessing a secondary hydrant, Nicholson said. Councilors asked about the video that was shown on local new channels of Watertown Police quickly shoveling snow from around the hydrant, and whether more needs to be done to keep hydrants free from snow and ice.
“That fire that you’re referring to happened like the day after a storm. The hydrants on the actual where fire happened were shoveled out,” Nicholson said. “Our staff was there that day. It was out on School Street, which is a busier road, and ended up covering the hydrant again. But so it was a secondary hydrant. It wasn’t the one we needed for the fire, but it’s a good point. I mean, we try to get word out to get help, but if not we get around and shove all of them as well.”
Nicholson added that the City sends out social media posts and communications about keeping hydrants clear of snow after big storms.
“But we also were out there after the storm for the next week or so, however long it takes to touch each hydrant in the fire engines going around to make sure that they’re all shoveled,” Nicholson said. “That fire that you’re referring to happened like the day after a storm.”
During the current year, the Fire Department expanded community risk reduction efforts, including increased inspections, enhanced public education programs, and expanded pre-incident planning.
“We do quarterly inspections at daycares and schools but we also had a pre-fire planning program where we would do high risk buildings, but with the software that we’ve brought in recently, it’s making it easier for us to further develop that program and assign more,” Nicholson said. “We’re able to visit more buildings and get more pre-fire inspections done and so that it’s not looking for code violations, it’s looking to help us when we go to this building. We can look at our program and say, ‘OK, the fire alarm panel is here, the gas main is here, the nearest hydrants are here, so we can get out and pre-plan incidents before they happen. And that’s helpful.”
The program allows for notes to be added, and Nicholson said they can add information such as a person with a disability living at an address who would have difficulty getting out during a fire.
Workplace safety has become a priority for the Watertown Fire Department, too, Nicholson said.
“Chief (Bob) Quinn got a good start on that, and I look to build on it this year to do cancer testing through the AFG grant,” Nicholson said. “And we’re going to continue to push forward with testing and for cardiac problems and cancer and Parkinson’s and all of the other stuff coming along for us.”