In the first half of 2020 alone, the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services responded to over 2,000 calls about fires, underscoring the department\u2019s commitment to its duty despite cuts in its budget, according to DFEMS Commissioner Dennis James C. Mendiola.<\/p>\n
Appearing at a House Ways and Means Committee budget hearing last Thursday, Mendiola reported that the department received and responded to a total of 2,439 suppression calls so far this year. \u201cThis is all fires, including brush fires, structure fires, trash fires. Some calls are just smoke but the department has to make sure to prevent any injury in families in the area who may have asthma or whatever the case may be,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Mendiola said DFEMS puts 100% into responding to emergencies despite major cutbacks as a result of the economic downturn the CNMI is facing. \u201cWhen an emergency hits, we go full on, we give it 100% support because we don\u2019t want to shortchange anyone in the community when it comes to emergency. We\u2019re trying our best to render the best services we can with the amount of resources we have,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Mendiola said that some of those cuts include fuel cuts, reduction in overtime, and furloughs. \u201cWhat I did in the department is we just stopped non-responders from taking vehicles home, we don\u2019t allow overtime unless it\u2019s an emergency and it\u2019s justified\u2014I think most of our costs is pretty much overtime due to emergencies and there\u2019s no way we can control that\u2014but other stuff like travel, we shut it down, we\u2019ve cut fuel by 30%,\u201d Mendiola said. <\/p>\n
About 10 of the department\u2019s 123 staff members have also been furloughed. \u201cBecause there\u2019s a budget shortfall and there\u2019s a number we\u2019re trying to save to continuously pay staff so\u2026furloughing 10 would help us continue to pay the entire department of 123 staff,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The DFEMS staff that continue working are on a 64-hour work schedule. <\/p>\n
The recent rescue mission for Honorio Encabo and the number of wildfires the department had to attend to have resulted in DFEMS needing extra funding to pay $20,000 worth of overtimes, Mendiola said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe anticipated to have overtime but we didn\u2019t expect to have multiple brush fires. We didn\u2019t anticipate the search-and-rescue mission. We didn\u2019t see any of that. Emergency is on call. On a perfect day, I\u2019m hoping guys don\u2019t respond but that\u2019s not the case,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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