The Shakopee Fire Department is getting a big boost after the federal government awarded the city $2.6 million.

The funding comes from FEMA's Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant program. The three-year grant will allow Shakopee to hire 12 more full-time firefighters by March.

"It feels great," said Fire Chief Joe Simon, who took the lead job just a few months ago. But he has spent his nearly 20-year career with the department.

He says the department used to have dozens of volunteers and 50 on-call firefighters - none of whom were full-time.

"We had a very strong paid, on-call volunteer force for a very long time," said Chief Simon. "The problem is, it's just not very dependable and it's not reliable."

He says response times took as many as 10 to 12 minutes.

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