St. Matthews Fire & EMS is comprised of more than 100 highly trained uniformed professionals and civilian employees providing comprehensive fire prevention and education, while also delivering emergency medical and public safety services. In addition, they provide Automatic Aid services to the neighboring Fire Districts of Jefferson County, Mutual aid to the City of Louisville Fire Department, and other Jefferson County Fire Districts.
St. Matthews Leadership is a joke. The chief is a decent guy and means well but takes poor advice from the deputy chief and the HR guy. The deputy chief is more concerned of taking care of his friends and people that kiss his ass than doing anything decent for the department or the guys. The assistant chief is more concerned with making sure the lights in every station match and that the paint colors are all the same. They hire people based on if they are family/friends of the deputy chief or assistant chief or if they are a DEI hire. They promote people who can’t do the job and lack leadership skills. Everyone knows it but you can’t say anything. We can’t wear hats with our names on them, no hoodies or comfortable warm clothing, but at least all lights match. Also….. they took away the remotes for the bay doors because there were 3 incidents in 3 weeks of people hitting the doors when pulling out of the bay. Instead of finding the root of the problem they just take the door openers away from all the stations….. except for the command cars. Yes, we have nice equipment, for the most part. Yes, we are going to 24/72. About 75% of the guys on the floor are awesome. The other 25% are not. Pay and benefits are pretty good. Command staff only listens to advice or ideas if you are part of their “friend” group. Anything from outside that is dismissed.
St. Matthews is a department that cannot get out of its own way. It’s a great place to be a firefighter. We have great equipment, staffing, and schedule. However, we cannot just leave good things alone. Command staff is so out of touch with those on the apparatus and are constantly changing policy and procedures in ways that make 0 sense unless you have more than 2 bugles on your collar. What is the worst thing is watching our brass not care about our EMS staff.
Every shift I watch as our EMS crews run non-stop doing mutual aid for our ungrateful neighboring agencies. Command simply does not care about our EMS crew’s well-being. Command could change how we do mutual aid but they refuse becuase they’re friends with the other agencies admins. Retention and morale are at an all time low and it won’t get better until we get a younger admin. Our top 3 suppression admin have never rode an ambulance and never will. Our Chief loves to act like he really does care, but he proves he doesn’t time and time again. They are constantly beating down our EMS division treating them like they are expendable.
We are paid well on suppression side, with decent enough benefits and the 24/72 schedule. We haven’t had a mandatory on fire side in months and morale is okay. It is exactly the opposite on the EMS side and I feel bad watching that division suffer while we have it comfortable on our side. We’re dying for overtime on suppression while EMS recycles the mandatory list at least every 2 weeks if not more frequently.
I could rant and rave about this department for a long time, but I’ll leave it here. Want to be a firefighter? Sure come on over. Want to work EMS? Stay far, far, away.
Rating Breakdown
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2 Reviews on “St. Matthews Fire & EMS”
St. Matthews Leadership is a joke. The chief is a decent guy and means well but takes poor advice from the deputy chief and the HR guy. The deputy chief is more concerned of taking care of his friends and people that kiss his ass than doing anything decent for the department or the guys. The assistant chief is more concerned with making sure the lights in every station match and that the paint colors are all the same. They hire people based on if they are family/friends of the deputy chief or assistant chief or if they are a DEI hire. They promote people who can’t do the job and lack leadership skills. Everyone knows it but you can’t say anything. We can’t wear hats with our names on them, no hoodies or comfortable warm clothing, but at least all lights match. Also….. they took away the remotes for the bay doors because there were 3 incidents in 3 weeks of people hitting the doors when pulling out of the bay. Instead of finding the root of the problem they just take the door openers away from all the stations….. except for the command cars. Yes, we have nice equipment, for the most part. Yes, we are going to 24/72. About 75% of the guys on the floor are awesome. The other 25% are not. Pay and benefits are pretty good. Command staff only listens to advice or ideas if you are part of their “friend” group. Anything from outside that is dismissed.
St. Matthews is a department that cannot get out of its own way. It’s a great place to be a firefighter. We have great equipment, staffing, and schedule. However, we cannot just leave good things alone. Command staff is so out of touch with those on the apparatus and are constantly changing policy and procedures in ways that make 0 sense unless you have more than 2 bugles on your collar. What is the worst thing is watching our brass not care about our EMS staff.
Every shift I watch as our EMS crews run non-stop doing mutual aid for our ungrateful neighboring agencies. Command simply does not care about our EMS crew’s well-being. Command could change how we do mutual aid but they refuse becuase they’re friends with the other agencies admins. Retention and morale are at an all time low and it won’t get better until we get a younger admin. Our top 3 suppression admin have never rode an ambulance and never will. Our Chief loves to act like he really does care, but he proves he doesn’t time and time again. They are constantly beating down our EMS division treating them like they are expendable.
We are paid well on suppression side, with decent enough benefits and the 24/72 schedule. We haven’t had a mandatory on fire side in months and morale is okay. It is exactly the opposite on the EMS side and I feel bad watching that division suffer while we have it comfortable on our side. We’re dying for overtime on suppression while EMS recycles the mandatory list at least every 2 weeks if not more frequently.
I could rant and rave about this department for a long time, but I’ll leave it here. Want to be a firefighter? Sure come on over. Want to work EMS? Stay far, far, away.