Wausau Fire Department will be getting some new hires.
Tuesday night, the city council approved grant funding for the fire department.
The more than 3 million dollar grant will help the department hire nine new full-time firefighter positions beginning next year.
It will help sustain those positions for three years, something Fire Chief Bob Barteck said will help get them to full staff and meet the workload, following an increase in calls.
"We've had more than triple our call volume response, and our responsibility that we have to this community has really changed in the past 53 years." said Chief Robert Barteck.