Columbia needs more firefighters to reach national standard

COLUMBIA — The Columbia Fire Department needs to hire 42 new firefighters to meet the national standard of four people per unit.

The National Fire Protection Association recommends that every fire truck be staffed with a minimum of four people so firefighters can respond to scenes in pairs.

But the Columbia Fire Department has only regularly operated with three firefighters per unit.

"We’ve operated the way we always have and expected a different result for about 125 years," Columbia Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer said. "And a lot of it is, we didn’t know what we didn’t know."

The city hired Schaeffer as the Fire Department's new chief in July 2024, and Schaeffer took the helm of the department that August. Schaeffer spent 19 years in leadership positions at the fire department in Spokan