In addition to fighting fires, this year, the Anchorage Fire Department has been battling a budget shortfall. The department is around $4 million over-budget, and the department has begun rolling closures to save money.
The city and the department were aware of a money shortage early in the year.
“We had signals that the budget was going to be challenged in the Summer,”said Municipal Manager Bill Falsey. “But of course, you'll also remember that this Summer was a record-hot Summer, with all kinds of wildfires."
So they waited until cool weather rolled in to roll out the closures.
“A couple days before October first we issued a memo telling our operations staff, and the rest of the mayor's office, the manager's office that we would be conducting rolling closures if people called in sick over a certain number," said Anchorage Fire Chief Jodie Hettrick.