CAPE CORAL , Fla. - A Cape Coral home is a total loss after a fire. Now the fire chief tells WINK News he needs to increase his staff.

With the heat and intense flames, firefighters had their work cut out for them.

"Trying to get enough people on scene here, we have a lot of staffing issues and brown outs. Three of our units are browned out for the day - trying to get that and effectively do that at the right time was hard."

Battalion Chief Rob Blasetti said being down crews meant firefighters battling the fire and the summer heat weren't even able to take a break to cool off.

"Normally if we had our staffing where we're allowed to get, we would have crews come in. We would alternate - this crew come back and take and break."

The conditions were so bad, a man inside the house was taken to the hospital.

Firefighters on scene were exhausted and needed to hydrate, but couldn't go to the hospital. They had to keep working in a heat index over 100 degrees.

The president of the local firefighters union wants an evaluation of the city's staffing numbers. WINK News got our hands on a new study by the institute of standards and technology. It proves higher numbers of firefighters gets fires out quicker and more safely. Now, crews said they are fighting for more staffing.