Six firefighters whose layoffs in 2011 had City Councilmembers seemingly on the edge of tears during public meetings are coming back, after all. 

Friday afternoon, a city spokesperson announced that the Minneapolis Fire Department had won a federal grant enabling it to re-hire six firefighters who lost their jobs during emergency budget cuts in summer 2011. With the return of the six, fire crews will no longer have poach crew from important supply trucks to pinch-hit for sick co-workers on pumpers and ladder trucks.

The six originally lost their jobs at the end of last year, during the dramatic fallout from mid-year state budget cuts. Their wages for the next two years will now be paid through a federal Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant designed to help municipalities through this kind of situation.