As downtown Austin grows denser, keeping multi-story structures fire-free is the job of the Austin Fire Department. But the Austin Firefighters Association has questioned AFD's staffing levels in case of an emergency.

"There really haven't been any increases in staff since the '70s," said Stephen Truesdell, Austin Firefighters Association president.

AFD is focusing on prevention. The fire chief and other department heads lead a guided tour of two high-rises downtown on Friday, to show the fire protection features built in to the latest downtown structures.

The features include sprinklers on every floor, emergency communication systems, extensive pumps to bring water to top floors, fire-resistant building materials and a fire command center in every high-rise.

"This room is where we would go to handle those types of things," said Asst. Fire Marshal Don Smith. "There will always be someone positioned in this room, at any alarm that we respond to in a high rise."

Smith also says AFD has concentrated its staff downtown and spread out the staff in more remote areas of the city, in order to accommodate downtown growth and its corresponding need for more staff.

"As the downtown spreads out, stations are farther apart, so we do have a larger amount of people in downtown to respond," he said.

The Austin Firefighters Association says the safeguards are good, but they say the bottom line need is more staffing. It says it is working with AFD to try and increase its budget to make room for more firefighters.