VWFD just trying to maintain what it has

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of articles to be published over the next few weeks on Van Wert city departments supported financially by Van Wert’s General Fund — the fund that would benefit financially from passage of the proposed 0.28-percent income tax increase. This article is on the Van Wert Fire Department.

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The Van Wert Fire Department has had basically the same staffing for the past 40 years, but the challenges facing it have grown exponentially over the past few years.

Fire Chief Jon Jones, who took over this year from retiring chief Jim Steele, said the department’s 18 firefighters and eight reserves have seen runs increase 15-25 percent each of the past three years. And that situation doesn’t look like it will end anytime soon.

Jones noted that, while fire runs have averaged approximately 300 a year over a decade or more, it is EMS runs that have increased dramatically.

The reasons for that are many. First and foremost is the city’s aging population. Chief Jones noted that 70-75 percent of the nearly 2,000 EMS made last year by the department were for people age 60 and over. With the Baby Boomer generation — the largest American generation ever — now in that age group, EMS runs are likely to continue increasing.

The drug epidemic has also been a challenge for the department’s EMS personnel, with medics not only dealing with drug overdoses, but also an increasing number of suicide attempts related to drug use.

The increased use of drugs such as fentanyl also poses a danger to EMS personnel themselves, while the cost of Narcan (naloxone), a drug used by first responders to treat opioid overdose cases, has increased.

The department now averages six EMS runs a day. That’s up from an average of three runs less than a decade ago. Moreover, EMS personnel are often out on two, and even three, runs at the same time, which increases overtime costs for the department because additional personnel must be called in to work to handle the load.

Chief Jones said the high number of EMS runs is the best reason why his department could never revert to a volunteer department.

“People ask why we can’t become volunteer, but if you think about six runs a day, and trying to get people to come in for six runs a day, it’s just hard to do with our population base,” he explained.

The amount of training the department does is also amazing, with firefighters trained in a number of specialties, including high-angle rescue, water rescue, ice rescue, confined space rescue, grain bin rescue, and hazardous material response.

The VWFD is also the only advanced life support EMS unit in Van Wert County, which means the department is called out first whenever someone in the county is in cardiac arrest.

In addition to fire and EMS runs, the department also does preventative maintenance on its vehicles, which are purchased using the .22-percent safety capital income tax, has a fire safety education program and does fire inspections and investigations.

The fire chief said it’s rare now that firefighters can sleep through the night without being called out on a fire or EMS run, while they’re usually busy throughout the day.

Chief Jones said failure of the 0.28-percent income tax increase would likely result in the loss of one firefighter on each of his three shifts. That would make EMS runs harder to do, and almost certainly increase overtime pay, as well as stress on personnel.

Having fewer people would also affect the runs the department now does when someone falls and needs assistance.

“Last year, we did about 200 of those, and I think that is a big service for our community,” Chief Jones said, noting that private ambulance companies don’t do those runs because they aren’t profitable. “Regrettably, if the income tax doesn’t pass, and we cut people, that’s probably one of the services we will have to look hard at.”

While “soft billing” for EMS runs does bring in approximately $300,000 a year, Chief Jones said that is just a fraction of the department’s approximately $2 million budget. The majority of that budget goes, not surprisingly, to wages and benefits.

Eliminating personnel would also make fire runs more dangerous, both for those trapped in a fire as well as firefighters themselves. Now, with five-man shifts, four firefighters can be dispatched to a fire. Two can then go into a burning building, with two waiting outside in case the two inside are overcome by smoke or heat and have to be rescued.

With a four-man shift, only three could initially be dispatched (one must man the station in case other calls come in), meaning that, because of the added danger, firefighters would not likely go into a burning structure until other firefighters were called in and arrived on scene — unless they knew for certain someone was trapped inside.

While Chief Jones said he would like to add at least a fire inspector to his department (the position was eliminated as a result of the 2008 recession), since his fire lieutenants now must provide that service, in addition to their other duties, he would be happy just to keep the people he has.

“I hope our voters look at everything, and I hope we can keep what we have,” he said. “We’re not trying to ask for more, just to keep what we have.”