SAFER grant funds 24 hires, boosting High Point Fire Department staffing

High Point City Council approved a federal Staffing For Adequate Fire And Emergency Response Grant in October 2025 that funds 24 new firefighters over three fiscal years, and the Fire Department says hiring is underway to meet the grant stipulation that all 24 be in place by March 23. High Point Fire Chief Brian Evans said, “We currently … have 16 of the 24 firefighters hired for that grant. We’re in the process of hiring eight more … It goes into effect March 23. To meet the stipulation of the grant, we had to have 24 hired by March 23 … Very proud to say that we’re on track to do that.”

Chief Evans and department leaders say the immediate operational effect of filling those positions will be a shift in staffing patterns on apparatus, specifically allowing four firefighters to be assigned to each truck for structure fire response and other heavy incidents. The SAFER grant covers hires over three fiscal years, but department officials emphasize the March 23 hiring deadline set by the grant’s terms as the critical near-term milestone for full grant compliance and immediate staffing improvements.

The hiring push follows a year of staffing strain that included a temporary closure at Fire Station 13 and other out-of-service events tied to staffing shortages in May and October 2025. The High Point Professional Firefighters Association Local 673 warned city leaders last year that shortages were stretching crews thin, and HPPFA President Robert Templeton said the recent moves signal a response from city leadership: “We’ve asked for steady increases in staffing and funding and equipment training, and they have heard us. They know now that when the firefighters are speaking, that we’re not just being selfish or greedy … We are looking out for our community just like our current city council has invested heavily in the past year.”

Independent analysis from North Carolina Fire Chief Consulting recommended increasing staffing to match population growth and flagged the need to raise daily minimum staffing levels. The consulting group and Chief Greg Grayson advise a planning target of two firefighters per 1,000 residents, a ratio that coverage translates into roughly 240 firefighters for High Point versus a cited current total of 216. Grayson said, “We think that's important for the sustainability and safety for your firefighters and your response service delivery levels in High Point is to work on that, work on moving that forward,” and noted that response times “have still been fairly good despite that need. But it has caused some delays.”

The 2025 City of High Point Fire Department Continuous Improvement Initiative provides the granular performance picture behind those recommendations: call processing time meets the benchmark at 0:37 versus a 1:00 goal; turnout time sits at 1:31 versus a 1:20 benchmark, a gap of 0:11; travel time to first arriving unit is 5:04 versus a 4:00 benchmark, a gap of 1:04; and total response time measures 6:30 against a 6:20 benchmark, a gap of 0:10. The report’s unit staffing averages suggest engines and trucks operate with three firefighters and rescue units with two, and it highlights that High Point’s population grew 21.85 percent between 2005 and 2024 while fire department staffing grew just 7.41 percent.

High Point’s SAFER-funded hires move the department toward the staffing levels recommended by consultants and by the Continuous Improvement Initiative, but officials and consultants emphasize that retaining positions after the limited federal funding ends will require a city budget commitment and a plan to raise daily minimum staffing over the next few years. Chief Evans’ declaration that the department is “on track” to meet the March 23 stipulation marks a tangible milestone; the longer-term test will be whether the city secures funding to make those gains permanent.