Dan Genz, The Examiner
2008-02-02 08:00:00.0
Current rank: # 7,481 of 6,563

Washington DC -

Prince William County's response to the more than 250 recommendations that came out of an exhaustive analysis of the Fire and Rescue Department's first fatality adds an expensive new wrinkle to an already dismal budget forecast.

Adding an extra firefighter to every three-person unit - a key recommendation of the report - would add millions of dollars to the county budget at a time when supervisors already are grappling to close a $51 million deficit in a time of major losses in property values, a critical revenue source.

A detailed analysis of the fire that killed 24-year-old Kyle Wilson - the first line of duty death in the 41-year history of the Prince William County Fire and Rescue Department - partly blamed the region's sprawling homes built with lightweight materials, which present new challenges for daring rescues.

"We just aren't putting enough folks on the ground at the time the fire comes," County Executive Craig Gerhart said Friday.

The size of the crew that responded to the deadly blaze on Marsh Overlook Drive April 16 in a 6,000-square-foot house was based on standards designed for combating a fire in a 2,000-square-foot home, Gerhart said.

"All of our standards are on the old 2,000-square-foot house," he said, but "We didn't build any homes that are 2,000 square feet."

The report also could change the county's focus from adding more units to shorten emergency response time to adding staff to existing units.

Four supervisors said this week there is little money this year to immediately address the massive staffing increase, one more firefighter per three-person unit, the report proposed.

"Clearly, we can't do it in one budget season," Chairman Corey Stewart said. "Everybody's very saddened by Kyle's death and we all feel that we owe it to him and his family to make sure that we do whatever we can do within budget restraints to prevent this sort of thing from happening again."

The county's draft budget to be released later this month will be based on about a 28 percent tax rate increase that would raise the average homeowner's bill 10 percent next year.

dgenz@dcexaminer.com