For the first time in the Northwood Fire Department’s 70-year history, full-time firefighters/paramedics will be hired.
The process has started, with an application deadline of Friday, and the three new employees are expected to be working by September, said Fire Chief Joel Whitmore.
“We want to get out the word to the citizens,” he said. “We’ve been talking about doing it for years.”
Northwood Administrator Kevin Laughlin said hiring the full-time employees doesn’t mean the whole department is going full time.
“There’s a continued hope, as things develop in neighboring communities, that we can eventually find a partner,” he said. “We hope this will lead into forming a joint fire district.”
“I agree completely. I am in full support of eventually moving toward a fire district,” Chief Whitmore said.
“If you had a fire district, or were able to work more closely with the different communities, you could share resources. And the hiring pool — everybody’s competing for the same people. If you had a fire district, you could work together,” he said.
Equipment costs will also eventually lead to a fire district, Chief Whitmore believes. The city bought a ladder truck in 2009 for $700,000. Today, that cost would be $2 million.
A Joint Fire & EMS District Feasibility Study for Northwood, Rossford, and Lake Township was released last year by the Ohio Fire Chiefs’ Association Consulting Services. The three entities, though, continue to operate on their own.
“I thought we were pretty close to getting it done, and it just didn’t happen,” Chief Whitmore said. “It’s going to take some time, maybe in the next seven years? I honestly don’t know. It’s just going to take each community to sit down together and discuss it.”
In the meantime, Northwood is hiring the three full-time people.
“We don’t want to get in a position where we’re not providing a good service to the community, and hiring these people will allow us to continue that good service we’re already providing,” Chief Whitmore said.
Fire departments in the Toledo suburbs are all trying different tactics to survive and thrive. Maumee residents in November passed a continuing 5.6-mill fire levy to hire people to respond to calls.
Also in November, Lake Township’s proposal for residents to pay for full-time fire and EMS services with a 4.2-mill levy failed; the fire chief resigned in May.
Rossford is proceeding with starting its own full-time fire department. The comes after several volunteers left last year and city leaders explored joining a fire district, contracting with Perrysburg Township, or going it alone.
Chief Whitmore said he and his staff started laying the groundwork for hiring the full-time employees three years ago.
In December, Northwood City Council added $192,000 to the 2024 budget to fund three full-time firefighters/paramedics who will work a rotating 24-hour shift.
All city services are funded with a 1.5-percent income tax; there are no levies for fire, police, streets, or parks.
Getting, retaining employees
It’s difficult to find volunteers, Chief Whitmore said. He hopes an annual salary, which will range from $54,304 to $61,401, will be attractive.
“As a volunteer department, we're aging. As we get older, the younger people aren't coming up to be volunteers,” he said.
“It’s the trend across the country. Volunteer fire service is on life support,” Chief Whitmore said. “People just have a lot of other things they’d rather do.”
The aging volunteers are alarming. He has a chart showing the department’s 50 and 60-year-old members regularly respond to 42 percent of Northwood’s calls.
The department has 42 on staff. While they are referred to as volunteers, they are paid for responding to a call, training, and doing equipment checks. The pay per hour is $14.67 for a recruit, $21.30 for a firefighter/EMT, $22.36 for a firefighter/advanced EMT, and $23.48 for a firefighter/paramedic.
Since 2012, there have been two people on duty, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Pagers are used to call volunteer to the station for an emergency.
Northwood is fighting for the same firefighters/paramedics that Lake Township, Rossford, Perrysburg, Perrysburg Township, Bowling Green, and Oregon ae all trying to hire, Chief Whitmore said. Northwood could stand out for a few reasons, he said.
“We’re small, we’re pretty progressive. A good group of people to be around. We’ve got some pretty good equipment, and we’re planning for the future,” he said.
The city is exploring building a safety services building. Council recently approved a $57,300 study for the facility.
The city has two stations, on Tracy Road and Wales Road. Last year, there were 1,380 runs; calls for 2024 are expected to be over 1,400. Northwood, which became a village in 1963 and a city in 1981, has a population of 5,300.
It started as Ross Township Fire Department in the 1950s, Chief Whitmore said. The first fire truck, which was donated by Hirzel Canning, is still housed in the Tracy Road building.
Chief Whitmore works part time for Northwood and is a full time firefighter/paramedic with Perrysburg. He grew up in Northwood and has been volunteering for the department since he was 18.
For more information, visit northwoodfire.com .
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