By ROBIN SHANNON

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE — Around this time a year ago, the St. John Parish fire system was operating with a thin staff of 17 paid firefighters to supplement a team of volunteers, and around the clock protection was limited to LaPlace.

Today, following an aggressive campaign seeking new recruits, parish safety officials say the firefighting staff is nearly at its limit and all reaches of St. John are assured fire protection 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

Paul Oncale, public safety director for St. John, said the paid firefighter count has grown from 17 to 32, allowing for each section of the parish, except for LaPlace, where firefighters protect a larger population and respond to interstate accidents, to have an equal number of paid firefighters to work in conjunction with the 80 volunteers in the fire system.

“I’m actually hoping to get two more recruits to bring the number to 34,” Oncale said. “Full-time fire protection affects our fire insurance rating, so it is a good thing we worked quickly to get this done.”

St. John Parish Spokesman Buddy Boe said the hiring blitz was made possible by a .25 percent sales tax that voters approved way back in 2004 to support a paid fire department.

“We’re trying to live up to a promise of paid protection,” said Boe. “In 2004, the voters opened the possibility of 24-hour protection, and we have made it a reality.”

Oncale said the new hires have allowed the parish to implement a rotating schedule where paid firefighters work a 24-hour shift and get the next two full days off. The schedule is used successfully by most major cities in the U.S.

“The guys love it,” said Oncale. “It gives them more time to rest, and now they have more time to work a second job, which most of our guys have.”

Oncale said the increase in employment has allowed the department to have two paid firefighters on each shift in Reserve and on the west bank and five paid firefighters per shift in LaPlace. He said both shifts in Garyville now staff three paid firefighters.

Under normal circumstances, each area’s staff only works within their district, but Oncale said mutual aid by each fire district support the others in times of emergency. In addition, the respective volunteer fire departments continue to respond to fire calls and traffic accidents to support the paid firefighters.

The recruitment efforts did not increase the number of volunteers, which, Oncale said, stands at about 80 parishwide. He said volunteer recruitment is a problem nationwide, but St. John has a decent level and it is not a concern.

Oncale said all of the new recruits received their training from the Louisiana Fire and Emergency Training Institute at LSU in Baton Rouge. He said all paid firefighters working in St. John have obtained Firefighter-I certification, a parish requirement.