LIMA — Retired Lima Fire Chief Andy Heffner and new Chief Jack McDermitt spoke to the Lima Rotary Club on Monday about recent changes at the fire department and what the department is trying to get moving forward, such as a new fire station.
McDermitt said planning for a new fire station is in the “infancy stages” with a study from the Ohio Fire Chiefs Association incoming to help decide where it should be located and how to start the project.
“The big reason behind that is our newest station is Central, and it was built in 1975,” McDermitt said. “We have three females working with us right now, and honestly, the locker room we have at Central, that’s about as much as that locker room can take. It was designed for one person.”
“With a new station, we want to remodel Central, completely overhaul it, so we have the facilities to move forward,” McDermitt said.
“They had three vehicles in that station,” Heffner added about Central Station when it was built. “They are now sitting at somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 vehicles in there and two boats, a rescue trailer, so it’s packed to the gills, so it’s definitely a need because the job has changed. It used to be putting out fires. That’s not the case anymore.”
The increase in the department’s calls for service also shows the need to expand. McDermitt said the department saw around 1,500 calls per year when he started, and now every year they have over 6,000 calls.
Another project in the works is getting equipment to help firefighters in confined spaces. McDermitt said the equipment would be available for every department in Allen County to use.
“Another thing chief (Heffner) started was trench rescue in a confined space. Our utility guys are in trenches, confined spaces every day. We have no equipment to help if something goes wrong,” McDermitt said.
McDermitt discussed a recent addition to the department that will make the job more efficient.
“This week we launched a new software that Chief Heffner helped spearhead. It’ll be all-encompassing — it will be for our reports; our scheduling that we do on Post-it notes and Excel spreadsheets right now; to our inventory,” McDermitt said.
One challenge the department is experiencing is a lot of retirements, which brings down the experience level. McDermitt said four personnel will retire in the first quarter of 2025.
“Our average years of service went from almost 20 years of service in the last two years down to about eight,” McDermitt said.
Another staffing challenge comes from getting people to stay at the department instead of switching departments for a pay increase. McDermitt said they offer training and specialized teams to try to keep personnel.
“The last three years we’re experiencing something that we’ve never experienced in the fire service. When me and Andy started, you started someplace, you finished your career there. Now everybody’s jumping around. We’re competing with the suburbs of Columbus, and we can’t. They’re paying six figures; we can’t do that,” McDermitt said.
McDermitt said they face a challenge with getting young people interested in the profession, and Heffner added some people have never experienced the conditions firefighters experience.
“Most of the young people today have grown up in 72 degrees. Winter, summer, spring, fall, it’s 72 degrees. When you’re a firefighter, it’s hot, it’s dirty, it’s dangerous, so you’re uncomfortable. A lot of people today have not been uncomfortable,” Heffner said.
One help to staffing has been raising the age limit for new recruits to 41 years old, which Heffner said has resulted in older people joining the department and people switching careers to feel more fulfilled.
Reach Charlotte Caldwell at 567-242-0451.
