Firefighter overtime to cost an extra $2.5M

Two years after county officials were handed a long list of recommendations to rein in firefighters' overtime pay, department officials have blown their annual OT budget of $2.77 million in less than five months.

County Fire Chief Ronald D. Blackwell said from July 1 to Nov. 30, the department spent $3.54 million on overtime, about $775,000 more than what was budgeted for the entire year.

He blamed the overrun on the high cost of training dozens of firefighters to become paramedics and specially trained medics. Those medical technicians are needed to staff a "fourth shift" of about 137 men and women that will begin work on...