The City of Grass Valley is looking to eventually operate a fully functioning Firefighter Paramedic Program, but in the meantime is seeking to fill vacant positions with qualfied firefighters. Fire Chief Mark Buttron said that in order to do this, he is requesting a change in the hiring priority for employees. He says Measure E established funding to increase emergency medical services by hiring paramedic firefighters, but the challenge is finding enough at one time.

Buttron says they have been recruiting for the positions but the hiring pool is not very large right now, and he would like to fully staff his department for the upcoming fire season.

Buttron expects the paramedic pool to increase over time as turmover in larger agencies slows down and more paramedic firefighters are availble for smaller agencies.