Columbia Fire Department wants 12 new firefighters in next year’s budget
Lucas Geisler
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Columbia Fire Department is asking for 12 new firefighter positions as part of its budget next year.
The request from CFD to the city manager’s office calls for 12 new Firefighter I/II positions at a total cost of $1.1 million. Chief Brian Schaeffer told ABC 17 News he feels the department needs 48 new firefighters to staff CFD to the proper level for the city.
Schaeffer said he wants the department to be able to staff each vehicle with four firefighters. Right now, most vehicles are staffed with three people. Having four allows each unit to deploy two teams of two at each call for tasks like searches and rescues, and bring them in line with National Fire Protection Association standards for staffing.
FY 26 Fire Cover Sheet 5-27Download
“We can rescue people faster, we can suppress fires faster, we can cut and extricate people from vehicles faster,” Schaeffer said. “Everything works in a four-person complement and that’s where we’d like to get to.”
The request for greater public safety staffing also extends to the police department. Columbia Police Chief Jill Schlude requested 51 new sworn police officers in fiscal 2026. Schlude said she does not expect to get 51 new officers in one budget but requested the number to publicly state what she and command staff think the department needs to be fully staffed for a city of Columbia’s size and population.
Columbia Professional Firefighters Union president Zachary Privette said he was supportive of adding more firefighters to get to the NFPA standards. CFD can handle four-person crews as long as no one is off work.
“The 12 that he’s requesting right now is going to get us to where we can get four people assigned every day with three-person minimums,” Privette said. “But in order to get us to that four-person minimum, that means every truck in the city has four people on it, we’re going to need closer to 48 or 50 people.”
City departments are in the midst of requests to the city manager’s office for the fiscal 2026 budget. Each request comes with a list of ongoing costs and “new decision items,” or new jobs and equipment the department would like in the next year. The requests are either pared down or incorporated fully into the city manager’s proposed budget for the city council. The fiscal year starts on Oct. 1.
Including the new decision items, the fire department is requesting a $35.1 million budget, which is $3.7 million more than the current fiscal year’s.
Schaeffer’s first listed non-personnel item is $70,000 to help supply and stock the new Fire Station 10 on the east side of Columbia. All staff hires have been made for that station, and he expects the building in the El Chaparral neighborhood to be ready by the start of 2026. It will serve the growing neighborhoods on the east side of town, including Old Hawthorne and The Brooks.
The department is also requesting a one-time spend of $25,100 for new boating equipment. Schaeffer said CFD is close to wrapping up a “facilitated learning analysis” of the water rescue that killed Assistant Boone County Fire Protection District Chief Matt Tobben. Schaeffer said that the process has revealed some needs CFD has for boats and boating equipment.
“We’ll be needing equipment, training and additional policy work in anticipation of [the analysis],” Schaeffer said. “We know that we have two old boats that have been identified years ago, in dire need of repair. And so we’re anticipating that coming out of the facilitated learning analysis and preparing ourselves for that purchase.”
City manager De’Carlon Seewood said he expected to roll out the proposed budget in July.