When Christopher Graham was unanimously named the Selma Fire Chief, one of the biggest things he said needed to be fixed was the manpower that was lacking in the fire department.

With 26 vacancies in the Selma Fire Department (SFD) there is a lot of work to do, according to Graham.

“We need people,” he said. “We need them to provide a service of fire protection to this community. That is a challenge right now. We are pretty low right now on manpower. We have a lot of work in hiring individuals. It starts from the top. You have to have a very strong leader. I feel like I am that person that can do that. We have to increase the pay. We have to hire some individuals within our community also outside of our community.”

Along with the goal to bring more manpower, it also would yield the re-opening of the closed fire station in our community that closed earlier this year.

We need the manpower to continue to keep our families safe.

Filling 26 spots is not going to be an easy task but it is definitely doable.

With Graham’s experience, we feel that this goal can be met with hard work and making our department more attractive in the job market.