City: Grant Bringing Back 6 Firefighters

Six firefighters whose layoffs in 2011 had City Councilmembers 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 in summer 2011. With the return of the six, fire crews will no longer have poach crew for on pumpers and ladder trucks.

The six originally lost their jobs at the end of last year, during 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.