BETHLEHEM, Pa. — A fire breaks out on the fourth floor of a large apartment complex.
Within minutes, smoke fills the hallways. Dozens of residents begin to evacuate, while each door ajar becomes a new airway, a channel pulling oxygen toward the fire and pushing smoke outward into the corridor.
Some make it out. Others retreat back inside, trapped by the intense heat.
Firefighters arrive with a single engine company.
They start up the stairs, encountering fire behavior that’s already escalated beyond its point of origin.
More help is coming, but it’s not there yet.
“Everybody is understaffed. There's no doubt about that."Lt. Jeremy Warmkessel, president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 302
Firefighters across the Lehigh Valley say versions of that scenario are becoming more likely as departments respond to more calls with fewer people.
From a chaotic blaze in Easton that forced residents to hang from windows awaiting rescue to the daily workload in Allentown and Bethlehem, fire officials describe the same pressures.
Staffing shortages persist, in part because of an aging workforce and the job's physical toll.
Call volumes are rising. Development is accelerating. Mutual aid fills gaps, but not always in time.
“Everybody is understaffed; there's no doubt about that,” said Lt. Jeremy Warmkessel, president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 302 representing Allentown firefighters.
“If you look at the benchmark statistics, your best practices, your National Fire Protection Association recommendations, all of those things — we're all completely understaffed.
“And there's studies out there that show just how much more work gets done with a three-man crew versus a two-man crew and a four-man crew versus a three-man crew.
“But you’re never gonna get a fire department … I would ask you to find any fire department in the country that tells you they're properly staffed."
A close call in Easton
The February fire at the Hotel Hampton rooming house in Easton has become a flashpoint in the conversation.
No one died in the blaze, but firefighters say the outcome could have been very different.
More than a handful of residents were awaiting rescue as crews arrived, with 15 firefighting personnel on scene within the first 15 minutes, Easton Fire Chief Henry Hennings said — far short of the more-than-40 personnel recommended for a high-hazard structure fire.
The response quickly expanded beyond the city’s initial units, bringing in mutual aid from surrounding departments — some from as far away as Lower Saucon Township — while trucks also raced across the bridge from neighboring Phillipsburg, New Jersey.
For firefighters, the incident highlights how quickly available resources can be overwhelmed.
“You’re talking about a lot of people in a building like that,” said Bethlehem Lt. Lou Jimenez, Northeast District service representative for the Pennsylvania Professional Firefighters Association.
One firefighter was running low on oxygen and managed to self-rescue using a ladder, but fell about 20 feet and was hospitalized with serious injuries.
Hennings has warned in the aftermath that firefighting capacity is not keeping pace with risk, particularly as buildings are repurposed, new complexes are built and occupancy levels increase.
“We’ve had Maydays and we’ve been fortunate enough to rescue our own. But there will come a time and a place where that's not going to be.”Bethlehem Lt. Lou Jimenez
But for Warmkessel, the discussion on staffing “goes way further than that.”
“The everyday, run-of-the-mill, normal call is where we need staffing also,” he said.
“We have three firefighters on every single piece of equipment in the city at all times. So we know we have three guys. There should be four. In some cases, there should be five, if you go to the standards, but we have three.”
Jimenez said he believes those numbers could ultimately lead to tragedy.
“We’ve had Maydays and we’ve been fortunate enough to rescue our own," he said. "But there will come a time and a place where that's not going to be.”
Staffing below the standard
In Allentown, the department guarantees a minimum of 29 firefighters on duty at all times, with three assigned to each truck.
That provides consistency, Warmkessel said, but it doesn't meet recommended staffing levels.
“Are we where we should be? No," he said. "And everybody knows that."
Bethlehem typically operates with 18 firefighters on duty citywide, while NFPA Standard 1710 recommends 31 firefighters per shift for a city of comparable size, density and call volume.
In Easton, Chief Hennings described daily on-duty staffing levels as critically insufficient. He said that on a typical day, the department has 11 firefighters on duty.
Jimenez said the issue is even clearer when viewed statewide, with many departments being asked to do more in increasingly hazardous environments, but without the resources to match.
He developed a survey for 70 career fire departments in Pennsylvania. A total of 63 responded.
“Some of the data is alarming,” Jimenez said.
The survey found the average engine company is staffed with 2.29 firefighters, while ladder trucks average 2.07.
National standards call for at least four.
“We’re well below the standard,” Jimenez said. “And that’s the average statewide that’s also taking into account a large city like Philadelphia that operates within the NFPA standards.
“So that data is a little inflated, because a couple of departments in the state like Philadelphia and Erie actually follow those standards.”
According to the survey, 85% of departments that answered the survey are not meeting those benchmarks.
“And we wanted to see what the obstacles were,” Jimenez said. “So 85 percent of the respondents, it was funding and budget constraints.”
More calls, fewer firefighters
At the same time, demand for firefighters has increased sharply.
In Allentown, calls for service have more than tripled during Warmkessel’s career, rising from about 4,900 in 2002 to more than 15,000 last year.
Those calls include fires, medical emergencies and crashes. All draw from the same pool of firefighters.
“It’s a lot of stress on the equipment and the manpower,” Warmkessel said.
In Bethlehem, units responded to more than 17,000 incidents and performed nearly 32,000 unit responses from January 2021 through December 2024 — a 16.7% increase in incidents and a 24.3% increase in unit responses.
In Easton, Hennings described a steady, often repetitive demand for service that continuously strains limited on-duty staffing.
Firefighters say that imbalance now defines the job, with crews moving from call to call with little downtime.
The limits of mutual aid
Mutual aid remains a key part of fire response, especially in smaller cities and towns, and departments rely on neighboring crews to fill staffing gaps.
But firefighters say it's not a substitute for having enough people on duty, particularly when most of those departments are composed of volunteers.
“You don’t know what [staffing] you’re getting at 3 a.m.,” Jimenez said. “Versus with a career department, you know exactly what you’re getting.”
Warmkessel said departments cannot predict how quickly outside crews will arrive or how many firefighters they will bring.
At the same time, a decades-long decline in volunteer firefighting has fundamentally changed how departments operate across Pennsylvania.
In the 1970s, the state had an estimated 300,000 volunteer firefighters. Today, that number is closer to 30,000, according to industry estimates cited by fire officials.
That drop has eroded what was once the backbone of fire protection in many communities, particularly outside major cities.
Volunteer companies still exist, but the model has shifted. Fewer people are available to respond, especially during daytime hours, when many volunteers are at work.
“Let’s face it, the fire service began as a volunteer service and things evolved over time,” Jimenez said.
“There were times when you lived in a small town, the horn went off and your boss let you go. Now you’ve got people commuting two, three hours to work every day.
"The economy has changed… now you have less volunteers.”
The result is a system that relies on fewer people to do more work, with less margin for error when emergencies happen.
“In Maryland, they have a combination model where they have career staffing and they supplement them with volunteers, which works very well,” Jimenez said.
Blending paid with volunteer
That model of blending full-time, paid career personnel with volunteers means some stations rely on the former for daytime shifts and the latter for evenings and weekends.
To maintain it, the state provides incentives such as substantial state income tax deductions, length-of-service award programs for retirement, scholarship opportunities and professional development and leadership training.
“I think that would be something that would be beneficial in Lehigh and Northampton counties and across the state of Pennsylvania,” Jimenez said.
A growing number of Pennsylvania’s more than 2,400 volunteer fire companies — including several in the Lehigh Valley — also are turning to stipend-based duty staffing programs to ensure crews are available.
In Hellertown, Dewey Fire Company recently adopted a points-based incentive system tied to both time and activity.
Firefighters earn one “duty incentive point," valued at $100, for every 12-hour staffing shift and an additional point, valued at $12, for each call to which they respond while on duty.
Upper Macungie Township Fire & Rescue offers a similar stipend program for its volunteers.
The model effectively creates a hybrid system, offering modest, structured compensation for both being available at the station and actively responding to emergencies.
The politics of staffing
But firefighters said the root of the issue comes down to funding decisions.
Hennings has made a similar case publicly. Addressing Easton City Council near the end of 2024, he framed the issue in stark terms, reminding officials that firefighters accept the possibility they may not return home from a shift.
“There are few careers where there is absolutely no guarantee you will return home to your loved ones,” he said.
“When your firefighters raised their hands, they swore an oath to protect the citizens of Easton … they may lose their life in the service of their community,” he said, urging officials to weigh those risks against budget decisions.
In Allentown, Warmkessel said the relationship between firefighters and city leaders has improved in recent years, leading to more productive discussions about staffing and long-term planning.
“We’re in a better place than we were,” he said.
That cooperation has helped stabilize minimum staffing levels and create more consistent responses, he said, even if the department remains below national standards.
Tension in Bethlehem
But in Bethlehem, Jimenez described a more difficult dynamic, where staffing often is weighed against competing priorities.
Bethlehem’s firefighters and union leaders say tension has played out over years of decisions at City Hall.
Department staffing has declined over time, even as call volume and development increased. Fire officials have repeatedly urged city leaders to fund additional firefighters, arguing staffing levels have not kept pace with risk.
They also have clashed with city leadership over how the issue is framed. Jimenez said staffing is set forth in the city’s budget — not through union contracts — pushing back on claims it must be negotiated.
"What I’m asking is that we consider the well-being of our firefighters, the safety of our community and the amount of exposure that we receive because we’re doing more with less and our citizens are less protected."Bethlehem Lt. Lou Jimenez, Northeast District Service Representative for the Pennsylvania Professional Firefighters Association
"When I'm talking about staffing, I'm talking about budgeted staff," he said. "Budgeted staffing is set by the budget, not by collective bargaining. You know, shift staffing, we can bargain."
He also pointed to a disconnect in priorities, with officials highlighting investments in fire apparatus while firefighters argue the more urgent need is personnel on the street.
"You're talking about two different types of budgets," Jimenez said. "You're talking about a capital budget and an operational budget — two separate items.
"We don't build a stream of revenue, therefore we're overlooked. And it's time that elected officials start realizing that."
Efforts to present data have added to the frustration.
Firefighters say internal studies and modeling have been set aside as the city pursues its own analyses, a process they believe delays action.
The result, they argue, is a cycle of inaction that leaves the department operating below recommended levels while waiting for a catalyst to force change.
“Money is the driving force, and budgets are the driving force to safety,” Jimenez said.
“What I’m asking is that we consider the well-being of our firefighters, the safety of our community and the amount of exposure that we receive because we’re doing more with less and our citizens are less protected.
“Our firefighters are being exposed more to chemicals that cause cancer, exposed to more incidents that could be related to PTSD, different incidents that affect the mind, the body.
"And the more exposure we have, the worse things can be.”
He said decisions are often reactive, coming after problems emerge rather than preventing them.
The toll on firefighters
To maintain coverage, departments rely heavily on overtime. Jimenez said that approach carries risks.
“We have staffing shortages," he said. "Their answer is to have our firefighters … let’s expose them more to toxic things, both mentally and physically. Let’s give them less of a quality of life at home.
“Let’s tire them out physically. Let’s give them a better chance of getting injured."
On the fireground, Warmkessel and Jimenez agreed that the impact of short staffing can be measured in air bottles.
Firefighters operate on self-contained breathing apparatus, and each bottle provides a limited supply of air depending on workload and conditions.
In a properly staffed operation, crews would rotate out after two bottles and go through rehabilitation before returning to work.
“A lot of places will have rehab policies that you can go through two bottles before you have to go and be completely evaluated, meaning blood pressure and fluids,” Warmkessel said.
“I will tell you that on a regular basis at house fires, our guys in Allentown are going through four, five bottles at times. And that shouldn’t be.
“That’s one thing that definitely impacts all of us in a major way is that we don’t ever rehab properly — ever. And we should, so I’m not making light of it, but it’s just the nature of the business.”
Jimenez said that structured break is designed to reduce the risk of overexertion and cardiac events.
With fewer firefighters available, that system breaks down. Instead, crews are sent right back to the fireground and back inside of burning buildings.
“In almost 16 years as a career firefighter, at incidents like that, I’ve had my vitals taken on one occasion,” he said.
Growth outpacing protection
Across the Lehigh Valley, development is reshaping the landscape faster than fire protection systems are adapting.
In Allentown, new apartment buildings continue to rise, particularly along the waterfront and on the city’s east side, where large-scale projects are expected to bring a significant increase in population.
Bethlehem and Easton are seeing similar trends, with older industrial properties converted into housing and new multi-unit buildings adding tremendous density.
For firefighters, that growth changes the nature of the job.
“Every time I go somewhere, I look around and I go, ‘What can I do if something is going on here?’”Lt. Lou Jimenez
Larger buildings mean longer stretches of hallway to search, more units to check and more people to account for during an emergency.
Multi-story structures require more coordination, more equipment and more personnel to operate safely.
New buildings also can have engineered wood components that lose strength quickly when exposed to heat, firefighters warn, which can lead to rapid, unpredictable structural failure.
“Every time I go somewhere, I look around and I go, ‘What can I do if something is going on here?’” Jimenez said.
“You have to take into account who’s living here, businesses, construction of the building."
At the same time, building design has shifted. Many newer structures rely heavily on internal fire suppression systems rather than external escape routes.
That places more pressure on interior operations when conditions deteriorate.
“Don’t get me wrong, sprinklers are great," Warmkessel said. "They definitely serve a purpose.
“But I will tell you, I’ve been to numerous fatal fires in my 24 years, and very rarely — I would say, almost never — does fire end up being what kills a person. It’s smoke inhalation.”
Population density adds another layer. More residents in a single building increases the likelihood of rescues and complicates evacuation efforts.
Firefighters say those realities demand more staffing, not less.
In Allentown, that conversation already is underway. Warmkessel pointed to the city’s east side, where growth is expected to accelerate in the coming years.
“To have only one engine east of the river is not going to be a feasible plan in the next couple of years,” he said.
In Easton, Hennings has raised similar concerns, warning that staffing and resources simply haven’t kept pace with the city’s development.
A system at a crossroads
Firefighters say the solutions are clear. They point to staffing increases, consistent funding and long-term planning that aligns fire protection with growth.
What remains uncertain is how quickly those changes will happen.
For Jimenez, the concern is not whether the system will be tested again, but how it will respond when it is.
“It has become so much of a norm,” he said. “Who’s going to die for this to change?”
