The Festus Fire Department recently hired three firefighter/EMTs (emergency medical technicians), creating three new jobs and bringing the department’s paid staff to 11.
The new employees – Mike Kister, 33, of Festus; Herb Gold, 36, of Valley Park; and Hanna Stinson, 22, of De Soto – all were hired at starting annual salaries of $46,000.
Fire Chief Jeff Broombaugh said the new full-time positions will allow the department to better serve its coverage area, which extends a bit beyond the Festus city limits.
“With the additional personnel, it gives us at least three people on the truck at all times,” he said. “Having full crews adds to the safety of the firefighters and to the public.”
Kister and Gold were officially sworn in to their new positions during the April 9 Festus City Council meeting. Kister worked his first shift with the department on March 1, and Gold began April 3. Stinson, who started working for the department in early January, was sworn in at the Feb. 12 council meeting.
Broombaugh said the growing Festus area needs extra firefighting staff members.
“Our call volume is increasing every year,” he said.
The department’s full-time paid staff includes Broombaugh, nine firefighters and training officer Shannon Peters.
In addition, Festus Fire has 15 part-time firefighters and about six volunteers, Broombaugh said.
“With the part-time firefighters and the volunteers, we often have four people on a truck,” he said.
Broombaugh said the money to pay for the additional firefighters comes from a 1-cent sales tax Festus voters approved in August 2019. Revenue from that sales tax is earmarked for the city’s police and fire departments, as well as its dispatching system.
In 2014, Festus voters approved a 21-cent property tax increase so the department could hire three full-time paid firefighters and institute one rotating part-time firefighter position. Before that, the district had been staffed entirely by volunteers since its formation in 1887.
The Festus Fire Department serves an approximately 5-square-mile area in the city of Festus, plus about 4 square miles in the surrounding area outside the city limits.