The following is the seventh in a series of articles about the Town of Westport’s finances. Written by ex-Board of Finance Chairman Brian Stern, this piece looks at the Fire Department’s budget.

Westport Journal presents these pieces of news and analysis to help readers better understand town finance: the dynamics that create the town’s revenue, how that revenue is spent, the major drivers of town budget increases and how the town manages capital and infrastructure expenses. We plan to also put the decisions made by the Board of Finance and the Finance Department into the larger context of continuing to secure a safe and predictable long-term future for the town.

Westport Journal recently met with Westport Fire Department Chief Nicholas Marsan and Deputy Chief Matthew Cohen to gain their insights on the operations of the department that keeps us safe from fires and other hazards and emergencies. We thank them and their teams for their dedication and professionalism in their important tasks.

The mission of the Fire Department is to provide the highest level of protection and service to all. Fundamentally, the department protects us from personal physical harm and our assets from costly damage in a variety of emergency circumstances. 

In analyzing 2025 incidents, only 2% of calls were for structural fires. The other call-out situations included 32% fire alarm notifications (many of them false), 30% EMS and rescue operations, 7% car emergencies and 4% hazardous materials. The remaining 25% were miscellaneous emergency requests. Chief Marsan suggested the department might more accurately be called the “All Hazards Protection Department” because that’s what they do. They exist to rescue us and keep us safe from all emergencies. 

Pivotal to the delivery of safety is prevention. This explains why we see a relatively small number of house fires compared with past decades. (The National Fire Protection Association estimates that there were 54% fewer fire incidents in 2024 than in 1980.) The decrease is the direct result of many preventative measures, including building regulations involving electrical codes, new building materials, sprinkler systems, smoke detectors, lower heat emission light bulbs and UL compliance of appliances. Safety education and the significant reduction in smoking among Americans have also contributed to reducing the number of fires.

In the words of Marsan, “safety awareness works.” Prevention is vastly preferable and less costly – not to mention less traumatic – than the task of an emergency response. 

The focus of the department is much more than “just in case,” or “always ready.” It is the management of the town’s entire safety system and involves most town activities whether you are building a new apartment building, holding a concert at the Levitt Pavilion or running a restaurant.

In addition to all these objectives, the Fire Department provides disaster relief from extreme weather and assists our neighboring communities when their resources are overwhelmed. Importantly, Westport is a traffic hub, and therefore we have the responsibility for emergency assistance on I-95 between exits 16 and 18, for which the Town receives no state or federal reimbursement.

The Department operates out of four locations – the headquarters on the Post Road, Saugatuck, Greens Farms and Coleytown. Of the department’s 64 employees, of which 39 are Firefighters, 16 Lieutenants, 5 Assistant Chiefs, 2 Fire Marshalls, and nine Chiefs. 

All Fire Department members are required to perform basic training, which takes about six months and includes academy courses, probationary training and specific assignment skills development. 

Members take part in ongoing training that prepares them to use new technology, new equipment, new processes and so on, so that when the “just in case” call comes, the firefighters are ready. 

Emergencies in one’s home invoke fear and panic. The sooner a professional is on the scene, the more likely the problem is solved with a minimum of harm. Therefore, a key metric of performance is “response time,” how long it takes for the responders to arrive on scene. In Westport, this time varies slightly by incident location, but in 2025 it was 5 minutes and 14 seconds. Not surprisingly, the overwhelming number of calls occur between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. but firefighters must be at the ready 24 hours a day, every day.

Firefighters work a 24-hour shift system with a required minimum of 15 members staffing at all times. They work two 24-hour shifts – or 48 hours – every 8-day cycle. The profile of the firefighters is varied. Thirteen are veterans, and 50% have at least a college degree. Some are heavy equipment experts, some mechanical geniuses, some construction experts and others are IT oriented, but all are tested for fitness and skills once a year. They are passionate and dedicated to the task at hand, and cognizant of the personal risks involved. 

Disaster protection comes at a cost – primarily a fixed cost. Currently, the annual cost is approximately $14 million, about 15% of the town’s non-school budget. 

The predominant expense item is, not surprisingly, salaries, which total $11 million. Firefighters’ annual salaries vary by rank and length of service but in general range from $70,000 to $100,000, while Lieutenants earn $110,000 and the Chief earns $180,000. 

Overtime is available and is important due to the proscribed shift structure. Historically, it has amounted to about 20% additional compensation. Over the past 10 years, total Fire Department expenses have increased 41%, almost entirely driven by wage inflation.

(Health and pension expenses are not being addressed in this article, since they are the subject of on-going arbitration between the Town and the firefighters’ union.)

Operating expenses are not the only costs borne by the Town. The Fire Department is capital intensive. At some point, the building will need extensive renovation. This is a highly expensive project–in the range of $50 million–which has been the subject of a Town review for at least seven years and will be the subject of a future article.

However, the physical apparatus costs are large and recurring as equipment ages. For example, a 90-foot ladder truck costs $2.2 million, a pump/rescue truck costs $1.1 million, and the town has recently spent more than $5 million dollars on communications upgrades. 

These capital costs are all bonded, and bear interest and debt repayment obligations. 

The Town of Westport has chosen to fund a full professional firefighting workforce. Many towns in Connecticut have a large contingent of volunteer firefighters. In fact, of the total of 13,401 firefighters in Connecticut, 8,337 – close to two thirds – are volunteers. Volunteers are compensated in various ways, such as tax abatements, health care and vehicle allowances. 

Westport’s choice of a career workforce, with inherently higher costs, has been based on various factors such as the Town’s infrastructure complexity, coastal protection, highway hubs, the high value of assets, the density of dwellings and buildings, hiring of required skills, reliability of service, and the ability to afford. Some towns, including Stamford, New Canaan, Greenwich and Darien, have a mix of volunteers and professionals. Other departments, such as Weston’s, are staffed almost entirely by volunteers. 

Which is the best way to go? This debate continues. But the Insurance Services Office (ISO) ratings show that communities with career departments tend to have higher safety ratings than those with volunteers. Westport’s current ISO score is 3, with 1 being the highest and 10 being the lowest. Only 17% of the 280 assessed departments in Connecticut rate 3 or higher.

The ISO rating is not a perfect metric for comparing performance, however, since the score considers many factors, including response time and equipment readiness as well as many circumstances that the department cannot control, such as property density and hydrant coverage.

Nonetheless, Westport’s rating reflects a comparatively safe town.

Westport Journal thanks the department for all they do to keep us safe. Please remember that prevention is the key to safety, but it is comforting to know that we have a band of protectors in the Fire Department that are ready and prepared when we really need them. 

Thank you!

Brian Stern

^{_{Brian Stern spent 40 years at the Xerox Corporation in a variety of executive capacities. He earned an MBA from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration. He spent 14 years on Westport’s Board of Finance, eight of them as Chairman.}}