SOUTHINGTON, CT — Southington has been awarded $3.03 million in federal money to help its fire department hire 12 more firefighters, the department announced Monday, Sept. 28. The positions are not settled yet: the Town Council has to review the award and decide whether to accept it and how to carry it out.
The money comes through the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response program, known as SAFER. The department said the added firefighters would strengthen its emergency response and help it meet the town's public safety needs now and in the years ahead. Patch, which first reported the award, said the hires could help ease a staffing problem the department has had for years.
Southington's grant ranks among the nation's largest
Fire officials said no other Connecticut department has been announced as a fiscal year 2025 SAFER recipient so far, and that Southington's award is the largest in New England, second-largest in the Northeast and 11th-largest nationally, based on the awards announced to date. The department said the grant puts Southington among far bigger departments that won staffing money this round, among them Los Angeles, Sacramento, Fort Worth and St. Paul, and Florida's Palm Beach and Sarasota counties.
Fire Chief Scott Lee credited the town manager, the Town Council, the Board of Fire Commissioners and the department's own administration and members for backing the application. The department also thanked Connecticut's two U.S. senators, Reps. John Larson and Jahana Hayes, the town's state legislators and Gov. Ned Lamont.