Mayor Stan Booker and the Lawton City Council are scheduled tonight to consider whether local citizens are paying more than residents of “peer cities,” specifically Norman, for fire and emergency service.
“As a general rule, it should not cost the citizens of Lawton more for its fire department than it costs residents in our peer cities” of Norman, Edmond, Enid, Midwest City, Moore, and Broken Arrow, Booker told Southwest Ledger.
“We’re looking at why Norman has “about the same” population as Lawton “but they pay their firefighters 25% to 30% more than we do,” the mayor said.
The discussion may get heated.
Lawton-Fort Sill has a population of about 93,000, but the Lawton Fire Department covers only the municipality, which has a population of approximately 78,500, Emergency Services Consulting International calculated. ESCI submitted a 134-page Operations Review and Fire Station Location study for the City of Lawton and its fire department last year.
The Lawton Fire Department (LFD) answered 16,236 service calls in 2023, 14,441 calls in 2022, and 12,384 in 2021, ESCI found.
The Norman Fire Department (NFD) responded to 19,424 service calls in 2023, 18,916 calls in 2022, and 18,211 calls in 2021, according to Matrix Consulting Group. MCG performed a Resource Allocation Study on the Norman Fire Department; their 191-page report is dated Jan. 31, 2025.
LFD’s average response time for all calls was 8 minutes and 10 seconds, and ranged from 7 minutes, 17 seconds for fires to 16 minutes, 2 seconds for other incidents.
In 2021-23, NFD’s response time – from the moment a call was dispatched to the initial arrival of resources – was 8 minutes and 31 seconds for 90% of the calls for service in the urban zone; 8 minutes, 20 seconds in the suburban zone; and 11 minutes, 44 seconds in the rural zone.
“Turnout time” starts when emergency service personnel receive a call and are aboard a vehicle responding to the alert (“wheels rolling”).
For the LFD, average turnout time is 80 seconds 90% of the time on fire calls and special operations incidents; 60 seconds 90% of the time on all other incidents. LFD personnel “stated that they need a new station alerting system, as their current two-tone system is old and they are losing turnout times” due to the antiquated equipment.
In Norman, average turnout times in 2021-23 were 2 minutes and 17 seconds for medical calls, 2 minutes and 16 seconds for fire calls. During that three-year period, “emergency medical calls were over the performance objective time by 1 minute and 17 seconds, and fire-related calls have been over the performance objective by 56 seconds,” Matrix noted.
Medical calls constituted 59% of the LFD’s responses in that three-year period, and 57% of the call volume for the NFD.
Fire department operations personnel numbered 138 in Lawton, 144 in Norman, 171 in Broken Arrow, 123 in Edmond, 78 in Midwest City, 75 in Moore, and 72 in Enid. Lawton has 1.76 firefighters per 1,000 residents. Current total staffing in the NFD is 163.5, including 149 in “fire suppression operations,” MCG reported.
LFD has 46 funded positions on each of its three daily shifts, “with a minimum staffing of 37 for each shift,” ESCI reported. The NFD is authorized 50 personnel assigned to each shift; daily minimum staffing is 40 personnel, MCG reported.
Administrative staff for the LFD numbered 11, NFD 10, Edmond 18, Broken Arrow 14, Enid 12, Moore 9, Midwest City 8. “According to ESCI’s experience, administrative staffing for fire departments typically ranges between 10% and 15% of total personnel.”
Lawton’s ratio of administrative staff to operations personnel is 12.5. Norman’s ratio is 14.4; Broken Arrow, 12.2; Midwest City, 9.8; Moore, 8.3; Edmond, 6.8; and Enid, 6.0.
An Anthropic artificial intelligence (AI) review of Lawton’s study concluded that the LFD “is actually running quite lean on administrative staff compared to most peers.” Lawton's total administrative/ support percentage (9%) “tied with Norman for lowest among peers,” the AI review concluded.
LFD ‘top-heavy’ in its upper ranks?
AI also reported, “While the study doesn’t make direct comparisons of command ratios with peer cities, this analysis suggests Lawton may indeed be top-heavy in its operational command structure, with a relatively high proportion of higher-ranked (and thus higher-paid) positions compared to frontline firefighters.”
This could be one factor contributing to higher per-citizen costs compared to peer cities, “especially since each higher rank comes with increased salary and benefits,” AI wrote. “For a more definitive comparison, it would be helpful to see similar rank breakdowns from peer cities, which unfortunately isn't provided in detail in the study.”
AI was asked, “Do you find it unusual that a commissioned fire study that was intended to compare to other peer cities would not include command ratios with those other cities.” AI “Claude” responded, “No, I don't find it unusual - I find it telling.”
This type of omission in a professional study “often suggests … the consultants were explicitly or implicitly guided away from making these comparisons,” AI wrote. It was “a significant omission in a study that was supposedly designed to understand cost differences between peer cities.”
Norman has nine fire stations that cover an area of some 189 square miles in which an estimated 129,600 residents live. Matrix recommended Norman build three more fire stations “to meet fire service needs of the community.”
Lawton, which encompasses 81.5 square miles, has eight operational fire stations plus the historic 95-year-old Central Fire Station downtown, which is used for administrative offices and equipment storage.
Fire Station #1, at the new Public Safety Building on Railroad Street, is in excellent condition. ESCI rated Stations #5 (at 1 NW 53rd St., #7 (at 801 NW 82nd St.), and #8 (at 6006 SW Bishop Road) as in good condition.
Stations #3 (at 901 NE Rogers Lane), #4 (at 2409 NW Cache Road), and #6 (at 312 SE 45th St.) are in fair condition. Fire Station #2, at the airport, is in critical condition even though it was built just six years ago, ESCI reported.
A “common industry practice,” ESCI wrote, “is for each firefighter to have two complete sets of personal protective equipment (PPE). Three-fourths of Lawton’s firefighters have two sets of PPE, records reflect. A single set of PPE costs an estimated $3,500 to $4,000. Fire Chief Jared Williams “has a plan in place for annual budget requests” that eventually will provide all LFD firefighters with two sets of PPE.
‘Reduce demand for emergency services’ The increase in emergency call volume for the Lawton Fire Department, if it continues, “will place a significant workload challenge” on the department, ESCI predicted.
Also, LFD should consider becoming a state-certified transport agency within the next five to ten years “to assist with” the Comanche County Ambulance Service and Kirk’s private ambulance company, both of which provide advanced life support and transport services for LFD. In the alternative, the LFD should “explore other community health alternatives that reduce demand for emergency services,” ESCI recommended.
To its credit, the Lawton Fire Department has a Class 1 ranking from the Insurance Services Office (ISO). Of the 27,168 fire agencies across the nation, only 411 have achieved a Class 1 rating – and only nine of those are in Oklahoma. It is “a benchmark that measures a community’s fire protection capabilities,” ESCI noted.