Bemidji City Council to hear from Fire Chief Justin Sherwood on 'critical staffing needs'

By Pioneer Staff Report

March 24, 2025 at 9:30 AM

BEMIDJI 鈥� The Bemidji City Council will welcome Fire Chief Justin Sherwood to tonight's work session to discuss "critical staffing needs" within the Bemidji Fire Department.

Sherwood reports that the Bemidji department cannot meet national standards which recommends a minimum of four firefighters respond to each call. The Bemidji station, comprised of nine career and 48 on-call firefighters, can only guarantee one career firefighter per call.

Sherwood hopes to change this to stay in lockstep with the rising demand for services.

"Increasing the number of career firefighters at the Bemidji Fire Department is not just about meeting standards; it is about ensuring firefighter safety, reducing response times, improving operational readiness and strengthening community risk reduction efforts," Sherwood wrote in his "As emergency calls, inspections and fire prevention needs continue to rise, an increased career staff will enhance service reliability, provide a safer working environment and ensure the department is fully equipped to meet the growing demands of the community."

During the work session, he will present a comprehensive overview of the department's challenges and offer three potential choices the council could follow to help alleviate this issue in the future.

The first asks the council to apply for the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant. Sherwood recommends the council ask for over $1.4 million to hire four firefighters.

The second is to adopt a three-year plan that would shift available funds around to address the issue immediately. Year one would hire two firefighters while years two and three would add one additional firefighter respectively.

The third is to change the staffing model from a 48-hour schedule to a 56-hour schedule. This adds 416 hours of duty to each firefighter's plate throughout the year but only requires the hiring of two new full-time firefighters.

The council will mull these options during tonight's meeting which will begin at 5:30 p.m., March 24, at City Hall. No action can be taken by the council during a work session.

All city council meetings can be viewed online at

By Pioneer Staff Report

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