BETHLEHEM, Pa. — A consultant’s study recommends Bethlehem add 28 firefighters over the next several years, and a City Council committee takes up the report Tuesday.
The study found Bethlehem’s two- and three-person fire crews leave the department short of the firefighters a serious building fire demands, and three trucks run with no officer in charge. Its staffing plan would cost about $3.1 million a year. The city has not said which parts it will pursue.
The Public Safety Committee meets at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in Town Hall, 10 E. Church St., with the 177-page Fire/EMS Operations Study as its only item. Committee Chair Justin Amann reports on it at the 7 p.m. council meeting, which has a public comment period. Both meetings stream on the city’s YouTube channel.
Nothing is decided yet. The report calls its recommendations “considerations” and says some would require union negotiations and may need funding over several years. The city posted the study and the committee’s agenda Friday and has not announced it publicly.
What the study found
The Center for Public Safety Management, or CPSM, calls Bethlehem’s emergency services “a strong and professionally managed” system. The city’s fire protection rates Class 2 on the insurance industry’s 1-to-10 scale, where 1 is best, and CPSM says its recommendations are “not intended to correct systemic deficiencies.”
But small crews can’t handle all the jobs at a serious building fire at once, such as attacking the fire, searching for people and securing water, CPSM says. Engine 3 and both ladder trucks run with two firefighters and no officer, and Engine 9 often runs with two, the report says.
CPSM would fix that in two steps. First, 12 new firefighters and 12 lieutenant promotions would put three people, including an officer, on every truck, raising the minimum on-duty staff each shift from 19 to 22. The study prices that at $1.36 million.
Later, 16 more firefighters would put four on both ladders and on Engines 5 and 9, which work alone from their stations, at $1.73 million. By the study’s figures, both steps total about $3.1 million a year at 2026 starting pay and benefits.
The study also found:
- In nine of 10 fire calls, the Northampton County 911 center sent crews in 3.2 minutes or less, compared with a 64-second national benchmark. CPSM said it was told those times rose after the county took over city dispatch.
- About 43% of the city is within a four-minute drive of a fire station.
- Bethlehem EMS calls grew more than 40% from 2019 to 2025, and nearly two-thirds of EMS calls come in while another is still underway.
CPSM recommends sending firefighters with Bethlehem EMS to the most serious medical calls, but it said dispatch rules and the firefighters’ contract now limit that. It also suggests running the daytime ambulance around the clock at $403,192 for four paramedics, building a new fire station in the southeast at $5 million to $12 million and automatically sending Allentown and Easton firefighters to building fires.
A schedule option
The study lays out a way to add people to each shift without hiring: switching to three rotating shifts working 24 hours at a time. With the same 96 people the department has now, each shift would grow from 24 to 32, enough to cover the first staffing step, CPSM said.
Firefighters would work 56-hour weeks instead of 42, about 33% more hours, and the report notes that if salaries stayed the same, their pay per hour worked would drop 25%. The firefighters’ contract sets the current schedule.
The union’s push
Bethlehem Firefighters IAFF Local 735, which has pressed for more staffing for years, posted the study Friday and urged residents to attend.
“But doing the best we can with what we have should never be treated as proof that we have everything we need,” union President Lou Jimenez wrote.
Days earlier, the union asked that CPSM present its findings and answer questions. At a Sept. 15 council meeting, Business Administrator Eric Evans told members the city would present the entire report Tuesday. The city has not said whether CPSM will be there.
How the study got here
At that meeting, council member Jo Daniels said CPSM began work Feb. 17 under a contract that gave it 120 days, which would have meant a finished report by mid-June. Evans said it became clear around June that the work would take longer, and the contract was extended to Oct. 31.
He agreed CPSM’s part was substantially complete, with its latest sections sent in August, and said the city was still reviewing them.
Last December, when council rejected adding four firefighters to the 2026 budget, Evans instead called for completion of the fire and EMS study.