Still struggling to find and retain staff, Albemarle County Fire Rescue is increasingly relocating personnel from the Earlysville Volunteer Fire Company, rather than assigning additional 12-hour shifts.
“This past winter and spring, we were hiring back folks at a rate that we had not seen before, and it was having an impact on morale, health and wellness of our staff and their families, safety, because we kept hiring back people that were working now 36-plus hours, and we had to do something,” Deputy Fire Chief John Oprandy said.
According to a memo sent to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors in June, there had been 117 mandatory holdovers since the beginning of the year.