Last night was recruit orientation for 12 recruits that will be joining the Eden Prairie Fire Department. During their orientation session they got all their vital paperwork completed as required by our Human Resources Department. Once their paperwork process came to an end they then got introduced to the leadership team of the fire department. The 12 also got issued their turnout gear, uniforms, pagers and their key fobs to get into their respective stations.
Combined with last year’s record recruit class, we have now taken on 31 new firefighters in the past year alone. Things are going so well with our recruiting process that we may not have to have a recruit class in 2009. Our current staffing level including this latest class now stands at 103! Over the next 18 months we will lose approximately six of our existing firefighters as they reach the end of their careers, so it won’t be long before we are back down to our target staffing level of 95. This is our highest level ever and bodes well for the future of the paid-on-call firefighter strategy that is relied upon in Eden Prairie.
