OPELOUSAS, La. ( KLFY ) — This week has been one of good news for the Opelousas Fire Department .

Among the good news is that the fire department has been able to maintain the city’s fire rating and firefighters will be getting a much needed pay raise .

After dealing with challenges such as staffing shortages for the better part of two years, Fire Chief Bryan Chavis said this news has them motivated to move towards the future.

Chavis said in the past two years the department has lost nearly 10 firefighters as many struggled with the low pay of the position, adding to the workload of those who stayed.

“It’s very difficult to try to get that recruitment staff back up when the pay rate was so low. The guys continue to put in the work even though we were short staff, even though there were things that were just not quite going in our favor, they continue to put in the work,” Chavis said.

That hard work would pay off as Mayor Julius Alsandor announced the department was able to achieve and maintain a Class 2 fire rating in the city.

More hope would be given to the department when the city council also approved a $2.50 pay increase for firefighters.

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“The pay increase is going to help us get new, new firefighters, get new recruits in, and when we have more manpower, that also helps the rating. The biggest thing is that we have the manpower and the extra manpower to assist us in emergency scenes,” Chavis said.

With recruiting more manpower in the department now within reach, Chavis said this can help the department grow as the city itself is also continuing to expand.

“We’re going to be looking forward to allocating a piece of property somewhere south of Opelousas in that area in which we are going to build another fire station. And if we build another fire station, we’ll need more personnel, we’ll need more equipment to staff that station, to be equipped to handle anything for the South With that expansion of Opelousas,” Chavis said.

The pay raise for the department goes into effect of Sept. 1.

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