Seven municipalities in mid St. Louis County, Missouri, have agreed to fund a feasibility study into creating a single regional fire department, with a potential launch as early as 2028.
The cities of Olivette, University City, Clayton, Richmond Heights, Maplewood, Webster Groves and Shrewsbury have each agreed to contribute up to $40,000 toward the study, which will examine whether combining their fire departments could improve emergency response, reduce costs and address staffing pressures.
According to reporting by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the proposed regional agency would bring together departments that already support one another through mutual aid, shared training and joint emergency response arrangements.
Clayton City Manager David Gipson said the current system of separate municipal fire services was not designed around modern operational needs.
“If we can go back in time and design the fire service for municipalities in the St. Louis region, no one would ever pick the way we currently do it,” Gipson said.
Supporters say the merger could create a more flexible and efficient command structure at a time when the cost of apparatus, ambulances, staffing and other operational requirements continues to outpace municipal revenue growth.
“It makes a whole lot of sense from an efficiency and operational standpoint to have one agency that has the size and ability to handle these emergencies,” Gipson said.
The seven participating cities currently employ a combined 216 fire personnel and operate with a combined annual budget of about $36 million. A merged department would serve roughly 108,000 residents across an area extending from Olive Boulevard south to Watson Road.
The proposed structure would be known as a regional fire authority. Unlike existing fire districts, it would not have independent taxing powers; instead, participating cities would fund the new department through municipal fees and oversee it through a board of directors.
St. Louis County is currently served by 19 municipal fire departments and 24 fire districts. Gipson said no regional fire department controlled by multiple city governments currently operates in Missouri.
A steering committee is expected to be seated by July and will oversee the study process. The committee is set to include elected officials, IAFF representatives, city managers, fire chiefs and finance directors.
Officials say a regional department could build on existing collaboration between agencies. Firefighters in the area already support one another through mutual aid, while several cities share training facilities and dispatch arrangements.
The Central Core Fire Training Center in Shrewsbury is already used by several municipalities, including Clayton, Maplewood, Richmond Heights, Brentwood, Shrewsbury and Webster Groves.
Andrew Pinster, a representative of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 2665 and a Webster Groves fire captain, said the study could help address inconsistencies in how resources are deployed across municipal boundaries.
“There are a lot of areas in Webster that Shrewsbury can get to more quickly than we can, but we would still be the ones dispatched to the calls under the way we do things now,” Pinster said. “That is one very basic change that could come out of this — the unit best suited for that call would be dispatched.”
Backers of the proposal say a consolidated department could reduce administrative duplication by replacing seven separate command groups with a single leadership structure. Cities could also pool apparatus, ambulances and equipment, while using combined purchasing power to reduce costs.
Shrewsbury City Manager Dustin Ziebold said cost is one of the main issues the study is expected to examine. Shrewsbury spends about $3 million annually on firefighting and emergency medical services, almost a third of its $8.7 million budget.
The union also sees potential benefits. Instead of negotiating seven separate contracts, firefighters could bargain with a single fire authority, creating an opportunity to standardize pay and benefits across the region.
“The ability to bargain as a bigger unit opens up ideally to being as competitive as we can be in the marketplace and hopefully retain top talent in the area,” Pinster said.
Not every invited municipality has joined the process. A dozen other cities either did not respond or opted out, with some citing the cost of the study and others raising concerns about losing direct oversight of stations, equipment and personnel.
Brentwood spokeswoman Michelle Boyer said the “overall loss of control raised red flags” for the city’s leadership, adding that existing regional cooperation arrangements were already functioning effectively.
Glendale Mayor Mike Wilcox also said his city did not want to pay up to $40,000 to join the study, noting that Glendale already has a service arrangement with neighboring Kirkwood.
“It didn’t make sense for us to splinter a very good relationship to join a study with cities that we don’t have that same relationship with,” Wilcox said.
Gipson said meetings connected to the study will be open to the public, allowing non-participating cities to follow the process. Cities that are not part of the study may also be able to request to join any future regional department if the proposal moves ahead.
“If the study comes back that this isn’t a viable option,” Ziebold said, “then we’ll at least know that, too.”
