HADLEY, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - Imagine calling 911 and only one firefighter is available to respond. For months — that was the reality in Hadley. Now, that is changing, Western Mass News has been looking into what a newly passed tax override means for your family’s safety.

For months, if you called for help in Hadley, there was a real chance only one firefighter was available to respond. On Wednesday, the town is taking steps to make sure that never happens again.

The Hadley Fire Department has been running lean for years. A failed budget override left the department short-staffed, and at times, with just one firefighter on duty. But this past spring, voters approved a proposition 2-and-a-half tax override — giving the town the funding it needed to start rebuilding.

“What it does do is it’ll now allow a two-person response for all the calls that we’ll be going to. So, it’s actually better for crew safety, they actually have somebody to be working with,” said Hadley Fire Department Acting Fire Chief Robert Flaherty. That second person on the truck makes a real difference when every second counts, "as the senior person on the truck gets to do their scene size up, there’s one more person that can start stretching hand lines if they need to or start doing another assessment of patients on scene. We’re actually able to accomplish more tasks in a shorter amount of time. And in our world, time is everything," Flaherty said.

The department is now accepting applications — with interviews tentatively set for July 29th and a target start date of September 1st. The goal: bring the force back to nine full-time line firefighters.

Fuller staffing also means Hadley’s own ambulance can get back into rotation — shortening response times and reducing the town’s reliance on mutual aid, “for the average value of a home, it’s a little over a dollar a day. So not even a cup of coffee, you get to have all the services back,” said Hadley Town Administrator Nathaniel Malloy.

As of Wednesday morning, the department already had 14 applicants for those open positions. Acting Chief Flaherty said he is “pleasantly surprised” by the interest and hopeful they’ll have strong candidates on the job quickly.

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