City of Lincoln receives grant for nine additional firefighters

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — The City of Lincoln on Thursday announced it was awarded a federal grant to help pay for nine additional firefighters.

The three-year, $2.3 million Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant is provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“This new SAFER award is an important step in making Lincoln an even safer community,” Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird said in a press release. “By adding nine firefighters to our team at LFR, we fortify our commitment to public safety and enhance our efforts to ensure the well-being of our entire community.”

SAFER grants provide funding to fire departments to help them increase or maintain the number of trained firefighters available in their communities.

The grant covers a portion of salaries and benefits for the new personnel.

According to the city, the nine firefighters are expected to be hired in the spring of 2026 and begin service that summer.

Lincoln Fire & Rescue last received a $5.9 million SAFER grant in 2023 to help pay for 18 additional firefighters/paramedics.

“These nine new staff members will allow LFR to be better positioned to respond to increasing service demands in the coming years,” LFR Chief Dave Engler said in a press release. “Lincoln Fire and Rescue is committed to operational excellence, and this grant accelerates our mission to safeguard lives and property at the highest level of service.”

Engler also announced two new initiatives designed to support the health and safety of first responders:

• LFR received a $291,909 FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Program grant to fund enhanced firefighter physicals that will start in early January 2026. The physicals focus on enhancing firefighter health, early detection of cancer and heart disease, and improving firefighters’ physical performance.
• LFR launched a new partnership with Ready Rebound, which is a navigation-based care system that accelerates access to orthopedic specialists, diagnostics and treatment for first responders. Ready Rebound helps first responders return to duty an average of nine to 12 weeks faster that traditional recovery processes.

Jamie Pospisil, LFR Battalion Chief, also announced that LFR’s cardiac arrest survival rates improved in 2024.

In 2024, LFR treated 132 cardiac arrest patients who suffered from a non-traumatic, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

The survival rate for those emergencies increased from 22.4% in 2023 to 25.8% in 2024.

Those rates are more than double the national average, which is 10.4%, according to LFR.

“Thanks to the quick thinking, expert skills, and seamless coordination between our first responders, 911 emergency communications team, law enforcement partners, and local hospitals, we ensure our community members receive the best possible care when they need it most,” Pospisil said.

Pospisil also noted that in 2024, Lincoln residents performed bystander CPR 69.5% of the time prior to LFR arrival, which significantly surpasses the national average of 41.4%.

She urged Lincolnites to download the PulsePoint app, which alerts residents to local emergencies.

She also encouraged community members to attend a free, hands-only CPR instructional event from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Oct. 28 at the F Street Rec Center.

Participants will learn how to perform CPR and use the PulsePoint app.

More information can be found on LFR’s website.