The lights are flashing and the trucks are rolling out of the firehouse, but Troy is significanty short on firefighters, according to a union official.

“It just gets worse and worse because it doesn’t get addressed,” Troy Uniformed Firefighters Association President Eric Wisher said.

As a result of retirements, the Troy Fire Department will have 13 vacancies on Sunday.

“The exam list for the entrance exam just came out. There are 40 people on it, but you have to be a paramedic to get hired,” said Wisher. “There are only six paramedics. They haven’t been given the agility test yet. That usually eliminates a few.”

Wisher sounded the alarm on an issue that’s not unique to Troy.

“When I started 28 years ago, we were a three-hospital city,” he said. “Now, we’re a one-hospital city.”

Hospital waiting times are an issue that is stretching crews thinner, he said.

“St. Peter’s is generally 30 to 60 minutes on a good day,” Wisher said. “Albany Med has been as bad as two hours for an ambulance to get in.”

The department runs cross staffing, meaning it staffs both a fire truck and ambulance.

“So if there is a fire call, they go out on the engine or the ladder truck, and it leaves the ambulance unmanned,” he explained.

“Like most hospitals, Albany Med is experiencing increased wait times due to staffing shortages felt nationwide," said Sue Ford Rajchel, a spokesperson for Albany Med. "We continue to provide safe care, and are taking proactive measures to recruit and retain staff.”

Wisher said the solution is simple, but expensive.

“The only way to fix it is with manpower,” he said. “We really need those three ambulances. We do enough calls to justify a fourth ambulance to be put on duty.”