Fire Department Staffing, Recruitment, Hiring
& Bilingual Services
Annual Report
Public Safety, Finance and Strategic Support Committee
April 16, 2026
Item: (d)4
Presented by:
Robert Sapien, Jr., Fire Chief
Athena Trede, Deputy Director
Thursday, April 16, 2026
Staffing
2 Thursday, April 16, 2026
Background
3 Thursday, April 16, 2026
Mission: • Protect life, property, and the
environment through prevention
and response
• 208 Square Miles protected o 181.36 within City limits o 26.81 Zone 1 (under contract with Santa Clara Central Fire
Protection District)
• City Population: 979,415 • 111,372 Emergency Responses in FY 2024-2025
• 720 Authorized Sworn Positions
in FY 2024-2025
4 FY 2024-2025* Daily Staffing (Typical) = 190
Thursday, April 16, 2026
Resource (Staffing) Number Personnel
Battalion (1) 6 6
Fire Engine (4) 33 132
Fire Truck (4) 9 36
Rescue Medic (2) 3 6
ARFF (6) 1 6
US&R (4) 1 4
5 FY 2024-2025* Authorized Sworn Staffing
Sworn Position (Rank) Authorized Positions Filled Positions Vacant Positions Fire Chief 1 1 0
Assistant Fire Chief 1 1 0
Deputy Fire Chief 4 4 0
Battalion Chief 24 24 0
Fire Captain 172 171 1
Arson Investigator 4 4 0
Fire Prevention Inspector 13 12 1
Fire Engineer 234 211 23
Firefighter 267 239 28
Total 720 667 53
Vacancy Rate: 7.36%
Thursday, April 16, 2026
*Fiscal Year End (Pay Period 13)
6 Thursday, April 16, 2026
21 19
27 36 38
32 14
6 6
2 14 11
8 6
0 10
20 30
40 50
60 2018-2019 2019-2020 2020-2021 2021-2022 2022-2023 2023-2024 2024-2025 Retirements (Service and Disability) Other Separations Total New Hires Sworn Retirements, Other Separations & Total Hires
• Sworn separations
averaged 35.28 over a
seven-year period
• Sworn hiring averaged
35.57 over a five-year
period
• Target: Two Academies
with 25-30 Firefighter
Recruits per Academy (as
needed)
• Firefighter Recruit
Academy is 20 weeks
Sworn Vacancy Rates: Paramedic Recruitment Efforts
7 Thursday, April 16, 2026
120
117
120
122
127
135
137 137
130
119
129
124
120 120
114
128
114 115
105
113
117 118
120 121 121 121
116
120
124
122 123
125
127 128
135 135
90 95
100
105
110
115
120
125
130
135
140
Post-COVID-19 Firefighter Paramedics
Comparative Staffing to Population in Santa Clara County 8 Santa Clara County Fire
Agencies Staffing to
Population
• Agencies listed total
852,002 in population
and 763 total sworn
personnel (0.90 staffing
per 1,000 of population)
• Agencies staffed by
CalFire excluded
(Morgan Hill, South
Santa Clara County
FPD, CalFire Unit) *Excludes population within 26.81 square miles of Santa Clara County Zone 1 Contract coverage area. **Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety provides both law enforcement and fire protection.
Fire Agency Population
Served
Sworn
Personnel
Staffing to
Population
San José* 979,415 720 0.75 per 1,000
Santa Clara County 258,315 248 2.70 per 1,000
Sunnyvale DPS** 159,673 85 0.53 per 1,000
Santa Clara 134,587 138 1.02 per 1,000
Mountain View 86,513 80 0.93 per 1,000
Milpitas 81,915 75 0.93 per 1,000
Palo Alto 68,794 93 1.36 per 1,000
Gilroy 62,205 44 0.71 per 1,000
Thursday, April 16, 2026
Santa Clara County Fire Agencies Company Staffing
9 Fire Agency Engine Company Staffing Truck Company Staffing Daily Total Staffing
San José 4 4 190
Santa Clara County 3 4 79
Sunnyvale DPS 2 2 26
City of Santa Clara 3 4 36
Mountain View 3 3 21
Milpitas 3 4 21
Palo Alto 3 3 24
Gilroy 3 3 9
Thursday, April 16, 2026
Sworn Recruitment/Hiring Status
10 Thursday, April 16, 2026
Sworn Recruitment/Hiring Status
11 • Filled 101 sworn vacancies
• Each classification has unique job
requirements and minimum
qualifications; requires separate
recruitment processes
• External recruitments - conducted
for entry-level Firefighter rank
resulting in 45 new hires
• Internal recruitments - conducted
for promotion to non-management
sworn ranks
Thursday, April 16, 2026
Recruitment, Marketing, & Outreach
12 • SJFD Women’s+ Boot Camp
• San José Fire Explorer Post 888
• Accredited Local Academy
• South Bay Regional Public Safety
Training Consortium
• California Firefighter Joint
Apprenticeship Committee
• Advertising, Marketing and Social
Media Resources
• Career Fairs
Thursday, April 16, 2026
Language Access &
Bilingual Services Status
13 Thursday, April 16, 2026
FY 2024-2025 Language Translation Services Demand
(Cyracom & Language Line)
14 • Cyracom utilized 5,523 times
• Field responders reported
requiring language translation
at 3,320 incidents
• Need met 95% of the time via
bilingual Fire Department
responders, assistance from
bystanders, bilingual Police
Department responders, Language
Line Solutions translation service,
or other means.
• 84% utilize Spanish and
Vietnamese translation
*Languages recognized for bilingual certification
Thursday, April 16, 2026
63%
21%
7%
2%
2% 1%
1%
1%
1%
1% Spanish
Vietnamese
Mandarin
Other
Farsi
(Persian)
Punjabi
Korean
Tagalog
Russian
Cantonese
15 Current Certified Bilingual Employees
• Department recognizes
19 languages for bilingual
certification.
• Department Vision is to provide
bilingual services at each
station on each shift (102
bilingual placements)
• 151 Sworn Bilingual Staff
assigned to Field Operations.
• 121 with permanent
assignments
• 30 assigned to shift
vacancy relief *Note: Other languages include the following – Armenian, Assyrian, German, Italian, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Portuguese, & Turkish.
Thursday, April 16, 2026
Spanish
69%
Vietnamese
10%
Tagalog
4%
Cantonese/Mandrin
5%
Russian
4%
Other
8%
16 Fire Department Sworn Staffing, Recruitment, Hiring & Bilingual Services Annual Report Public Safety, Finance and Strategic Support Committee
April 16, 2026
Item (d)4
Thursday, April 16, 2026
Questions?
Robert Sapien, Jr., Fire Chief
Fire Department
Athena Trede, Deputy Director
Fire Department