Bloomington Fire Department [BFD] is making strides in improving internal and external goals for hiring new staff this year. The department has seen recruitment numbers exceed expectations while also getting approval for two full-time community health navigators.
In partnership with IAFF Local 49, BFD moved from a traditional 24 hours on and 48 hours off model to 24 hours on with 72 hours off for staff. The change last year aimed to reduce turnover.
Bloomington Fire Capt. Frank Friend said the department also changed its hiring requirements. Now, the department requires applicants to hold a paramedic license or be active in paramedic training.
Friend said the department received 185 applications in 2024, without the paramedic requirement. Last year, at least half of BFD's 94 applicants had paramedic training.
Back in 2023, the department waived the requirement of needing a paramedic license to try and boost application numbers the following year. The strategy worked, as applications surged to the 185 number in 2024, when the number of applicants was as low as 15 before.
“Once the labor contract was settled with [IAFF] Local 49 and the City of Bloomington, and the 24 hour [on], 72 off was enacted, both sides of that felt like we could attract paramedics that were already licensed, that perhaps maybe work for an ambulance service or another municipality or fire…to come here to work because of the work schedule…” Friend said.
“So, folks wouldn’t have to pick up and move, and they would have that extra day off, which is a leading-edge thing for us to do in Bloomington.”
While the new prerequisites allow BFD to be more selective with hiring, Friend said the department has always had a high standard to begin with.
“The standard still remains the same,” he said. “It allows us to attract a greater number of people and then we sift those people through the standard and hire the best candidates that we can.”
Proving the department can hire with or without the licenses has shown its flexibility, Friend said. Right now, applicants will need to have a license, but in another testing cycle it could be waived again.
At the same time, the department is also handling expected retirements. Currently, the department sits at 116, which is close to where it would like to be. Ideally, BFD would like to hire six firefighters in the first quarter of 2026. Friend said that might not quite "make the department whole," because there are many moving parts.
“Do we have the minimum staffing that we need to staff all of our fire trucks and ambulances every day? Absolutely,” he said.
Friend said firefighters will be required to work extra shifts for the next year, with a reduction in "debit days" in 2027.
“As we look and have built out that fourth shift, guys are incurring debit days," Friend said.
Friend said BFD has a “sunrise and sunset” system to recruiting. When filling positions in the hiring window, the department will comprise a list of eligible candidates in ranked order, per state statute. As for retention, that is strong.
“It’s a little too early to tell from a specific data point I can point to that says, ‘Hey, the reason that we’re having an increase in retention directly corresponds with that work schedule,’” he said. “What we are finding on a national trend in the fire service is, as departments move towards this schedule within a year, two years, three years, they start to see that pay off in terms of being able to recruit higher numbers.”
Social service outreach
Last month, Friend told WGLT the department wants to increase its social service offerings.
McLean County approved a $200,000 grant to BFD to hire two full-time health navigators to provide this type of outreach.
“So, if you think about the number of calls that we go on [in a year], that’s 14,000 total. Out of that, there’s 8,000 that are driven from some sort of medical need,” he said. “Out of that, there’s about 4 to 5,000 people within just the City of Bloomington that could use wraparound social services.”
Those are the kinds of calls such as falls, psychological evaluations and illness. Friend said the outreach will help elderly residents age in place who may need help if they are alone.
“Maybe medications, housekeeping, maybe it’s a grab rail in their bathtub. Maybe it’s a home safety visit, that sort of thing, that assesses their safety and viability in their own home,” he said. “So, we’re not looking to reduce call volume as much as we are in providing getting the right service for the right people to make a more resilient community, and then with that we may see some direct call decline.”
Friend said according to the last census, about 15% of people in Bloomington may meet that criteria. It will be the job of the heath navigators to decide who needs what service.
“They will triage those folks, and then they’ll make a soft introduction with those folks to see what kind of needs they have. And then our community health navigators will work with social service agencies in McLean County to get those folks their services and be an accountability partner with the McLean County Health Department to ensure that these services are being provided and provided in a timely fashion,” he said.
While the navigators will work directly with BFD, Friend said they will work to better the entire Bloomington-Normal community. They will help frequent callers in Bloomington, Normal and McLean County.
As the navigators receive referrals, they may be able to provide care that prevents situations from worsening and affecting others, according to Friend.
Friend said, “This is the difference between having a complete hoarder house versus our guys going in and saying, ‘Hey, I noticed you got a little bit of collection of stuff on your dining room table. Would it be okay if we forwarded your information to our community health navigators, see if we can get somebody in here to kind of help you out with some things?’”
The grant money was approved by the McLean County Board of Health and was accepted by the Bloomington City Council at their Feb. 9 meeting.
