By Eric Curl
July 14, 2025 – It took almost a month, but last week Chatham County provided a community risk assessment and strategic plan that identified multiple “gaps” in the year-old county run fire department after Savannah Agenda’s open-records request on June 12. The documents were cited, but not included, in the county commission’s June 13 meeting agenda in relation to a $14 million FEMA grant application to help cover the cost of hiring 72 additional firefighters over a 3-year period.
Among the findings, that assessment reported that the county’s fire service does not currently meet national standards for how many firefighters should respond to incidents. For example, the National Fire Protection Association recommends at least 16 firefighters respond to a single-family house fire, but the county can currently send only about 10 without help from neighboring departments, according to the report.
Assuming the county’s application is successful – and the grant funds are not on the Trump administration’s budget cutting chopping block – the funds, which requires the county to put up a $9 million match, would help address the staffing shortage identified in the risk assessment.
Still, the one-time grant funds are not a permanent way to cover the costs of running the department. To provide an ongoing funding source, the commission recently increased the property tax rate for the unincorporated area outside city limits – the fire department’s service area.
The tax increase actually replaces a fee the county was charging for services and most property owners – about 80% – will actually be paying less as a result of the transition, according to county officials. However, the increase only covers about $14 million of the $21 million of the department’s operating costs, according to officials, and Commission Chairman Chester Ellis has indicated at the June 13 there could be additional increases in future years.
“There are some challenges that were anticipated and then there are some hidden challenges that we did not know when we took over the fire department,” Ellis said. “So we just have to take those beatings now until those growing pains over.”
In addition to staffing needs, the assessment found that the much of the department’s buildings, vehicles and equipment are outdated and could use an upgrade or replacement. Concerns about aging fire stations included a lack modern safety features, such as exhaust removal systems and dedicated decontamination areas.
Community Risk Assessment conducted by the ICMA Center for Public Safety Management>
Chatham County Fire Department Strategic Plan 2024-2028>
Related: Chatham County says tax increase needed to cover fire department costs>
June 13 Chatham Agenda Report for Fire Dept. Grant>
The county will also need to relocate some of the fire stations and even shut some down to improve response times and efficiency, according to the report. This planning is made difficult though by the city of Savannah’s penchant for annexing county property, which challenges Chatham’s ability to predict where a fire station is needed and avoid duplication of services. The report also notes Chatham’s need to partner up with other municipalities and adopt some formal mutual aid agreements, which were reportedly dropped when the county took over the department.
The challenges might revive talks once again of merging Chatham and city municipalities, but the county does not appear interested in the idea. Actions in recent years actually indicate the opposite. In addition to forming its own fire department, the county established its own police department in 2018, after dissolving a merged department with Savannah. And the county also took over operations of the emergency 911 center, a move, unlike the police department breakup, that was supported by the city of Savannah. The emergency center’s operation is also in need of funding, however. At the June 13 meeting, the county commission approved a US Dept. of Defense grant application for $5.6 million, with an almost $1.7 million match, to help pay for a new emergency response center near the Savannah/Hilton Head Airport.
Meanwhile, notification of the SAFER grant awards, which the county is counting on for the fire department staffing, are expected to start around August 18, with the process continuing on a rolling basis until complete, but no later than Sept. 30.
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