BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — In emergencies, money is usually the last thing on people's minds.
If someone needs help, you save them no matter the cost. For fire chiefs like John Cunningham, the cost of saving lives is more expensive than ever.
"At the end of the day, when someone calls 911 we have to respond no matter what.”
Cunningham is the fire chief in Brooklyn Park and also the president of the Minnesota State Fire Chiefs Association.
"Fire chiefs across the state are really struggling right now," Cunningham says.
Many are struggling to keep their stations running with increased costs and decreased funding. According to a new report from the Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence, Minnesota ranks 48th in the nation for fire department funding.
The latest numbers, from 2017, show Minnesota fire departments receive an average of $234 per household. That number is less than half of the nationwide average of $420 per household, according to the report.
“Fire chiefs are deeply troubled by this. They don’t know how to fix these issues,” Cunningham says.
Cunningham knows of some departments that are operating with less than $20,000 a year. He says it’s a minuscule amount considering the costs of equipment.
"For a firefighter’s jacket, their pants and their boots, you're looking at about $3,500 a year,”
And then there's the trucks.
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"A ladder truck like this, the prices are about $1.2 million,” Cunningham says.
New equipment and training programs are usually the first things chiefs look to cut, Cunningham says, putting ill-prepared and ill-equipped firefighters into dangerous situations.
"We need to fix this problem."
The Chiefs Association is planning a big push at the capitol in 2020 for more funding, and is working with chiefs across the state to get more money at the local level to tackle a crisis they say is only getting worse.
“We’ve always had a low ranking, but going from 44th in the nation to 48th in only one year, that’s shocking and shows there’s a problem.”